Internet has no influence

WHILE PEOPLE ARE RUSHING to buy stuff online, they are less keen on listening to advertisements or product reviews they see on the Internet.

According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project lots of people use the net to work out what they should buy, but they are more likely to take the advice of a man down the pub, a sales bloke, or even the cat, before they take a Web page seriously.

Pew's associate director John Horrigan said that the internet was good at sorting out the products that were so dire that no one would look at them twice. But only about 10 per cent of mobile phone buyers and seven percent of music purchasers made up their minds by reading something on the net.

What makes matters worse is that hardly anyone fills in online consumer reviews. They might read them, but never fill in their own replies. µ

L'Inq
AP