Amazon tests new star ratings that are even harder to read


Amazon is testing a new way to show star ratings for products in search results that is more difficult to parse at a glance, as reported by Android Police.
Under the new system, when you’re browsing search results, Amazon will show you an average star rating as a number, then a singular gold star, and then, in parentheses next to the star, what percentage of reviews are five stars.
The change is a bit easier to understand in an image, so take a look at this one from Android Police:
Android Police says it saw this different layout in the Amazon India mobile app, on the Amazon Germany website, and on Amazon’s global website when accessed from Germany.
I don’t like this change because it gets rid of the easily glanceable stat of the volume of ratings in favor of the percentage of how many are five stars. Personally, if a product has tens of thousands of reviews but is still hovering on the mid-to-high end of a five-star average, I generally take that as a better assurance of quality than a product that has double-digit total ratings but an average that’s just under five stars.
A statement from Amazon didn’t confirm that it’s making the changes shown in Android Police, but it did leave open the possibility that it might. “We are always innovating on behalf of customers to provide the best possible shopping experience,” Amazon spokesperson Maria Boschetti said in an email to The Verge.
I’m personally not seeing the different layout here in the US, but I am seeing a couple other versions of the ratings. Some show an average rating, one gold star, and then what appears to be the total number of reviews. Others swap out the single star for five star icons — though, in the few examples where I’ve seen these, all five are filled in even if the average rating is closer to four than it is to five. (Note that Amazon’s star ratings aren’t a simple average but are calculated using “machine-learned models,” according to a support page.)
Amazon is testing a new way to show star ratings for products in search results that is more difficult to parse at a glance, as reported by Android Police. Under the new system, when you’re browsing search results, Amazon will show you an average star rating as a number, then…
Recent Posts
- Fortnite’s new season has heists, pickles, and Cowboy Bebop
- The best microSD cards in 2025
- I tried this new online AI agent, and I can’t believe how good Convergence AI’s Proxy 1.0 is at completing multiple online tasks simultaneously
- I cannot describe how strange Elon Musk’s CPAC appearance was
- Over a million clinical records exposed in data breach
Archives
- February 2025
- January 2025
- December 2024
- November 2024
- October 2024
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- September 2018
- October 2017
- December 2011
- August 2010