2. a group that has users' best interests at heart, as well as a financial incentive (google's personalization helps readers find relevant searches as well as helping advertisers target... maybe not a 100% perfect example but you get the idea)
3. a diverse array of paying customers such that no one interest overpowers the others.
As far as I know Consumer Reports is the only one that does this still. Consumer Reports is a nonprofit, and they're run like a media company. Their staff research and write the content, pretty well!
I don't think this would work for user-generated content -- who would pay to be able to write an anonymous review?
I do think user-generated content is necessary for job reviews; you can't buy the experience of being an employee off the shelf and subject it to objective tests, like with technology products.
Review sites must be free for readers and reviewers. So, the revenue either has to somehow come from
1. end-users indirectly (like how HackerNews helps YCombinator attract quality investments)
2. a group that has users' best interests at heart, as well as a financial incentive (google's personalization helps readers find relevant searches as well as helping advertisers target... maybe not a 100% perfect example but you get the idea)
3. a diverse array of paying customers such that no one interest overpowers the others.
Any ideas in Glassdoor's context?