Dive Brief:

• Amazon has upgraded its customer reviews system in the U.S. to favor newer content and verified site users that shoppers deem helpful, reports CNET.
• A machine-learning platform developed in-house will determine which reviews are the most helpful to customers and place them on the top of review pages. 
• The new system, which was implemented Friday, will present ratings as a weighted average for U.S. customers only, but may expand to international markets. 

Dive Insight:

Amazon is tweaking its five-star product ratings system to enhance trust among shoppers. A new machine-learning platform will lend added weight to content filed by verified Amazon users who have submitted helpful reviews in the past, and emphasize more recent reviews. Results will slowly roll out in product reviews seen by users in the United States in the next weeks and months.

Customer reviews have long allowed Amazon shoppers to find out what other buyers think about the products offered on the e-commerce marketplace. Ratings systems have since become a fixture on many e-commerce sites, even become a source of contention as marketers have allegedly generated fake reviews to game the system.