If you spend enough time browsing the Windows Store, you’re bound to come across a fair share of spammy or “useless” reviews that add little to the conversation. In an attempt to improve matters, Microsoft is now making it easier for developers to report low-quality user reviews.
As reported by WinBeta, developers can now report questionable reviews to the Windows Store support team. From there, a support representative can remove the offending review if they determine that the review violates store policies. The company also put new anti-spam technology into place that can “detect and remove a large majority of the spam reviews.”
Developers can also reply to a reviewer’s concerns directly, a feature Microsoft put in place last year, as WinBeta notes.
Taken together, if implemented properly, these additional tools should go a long way toward controlling spam on the Windows Store, and make reviews a more useful and relevant tool for users who want to determine whether an app is worth downloading or purchasing.
The story behind the story: The Windows Store’s quality problems aren’t new—we’ve taken issue with the state of the store on multiple occasions. And Microsoft’s new spam-reporting tools are not the company’s first attempt at cleaning up the mess. Earlier this year, Microsoft put new policies in place to try and reduce the amount of spammy, low-quality apps that litter the store. Prior to that, in August 2014, the company pulled 1500 “crap apps” from the store.