App sites named and shamed for selling 'expedited' iPhone game reviews

The issue of app review sites accepting cash for 'expedited' reviews has reared its head a few times since the launch of the App Store.

The phenomenon has prompted concerned journalists to formulate OATS - the Organisation of App Testing Standards - which stipulates a set of ethical standards for review sites to follow, and the FTC changed its guidelines in 2009 so that bloggers are now required to disclose when reviews are published in exchange for cash or gifts.

In an article published today, Wired has publically identified a couple of sites that allegedly take cash for coverage, singling out TheiPhoneAppReview and AppCraver.

Though the expedited reviews model is applied in different ways by different sites, the general principle is that the site selects which games to review and how quickly it will review them on editorial principles of merit except where a developer ponies up a bit of cash to get his game covered.

As AppCraver writes in its 'About' section, “Expedited Reviews are a paid service and the only way to guarantee that an app gets reviewed by our staff.”

Sites that sell expedited reviews typically defend the practice by insisting that the reviews themselves are wholly independent. The reviewer never knows about the arrangement and so the sponsor is effectively just paying for the work to be done, rather than for a particular verdict to be rendered.

But this reasoning is open to objection. However independent the reviews are, their very presence on the web constitutes ostensibly editorial promotion for a game that may not deserve it, perhaps at the expense of a review of a game that does.

Wired goes on to claim that TheiPhoneAppReview actively solicits expedited review business and refuses to publish reviews unless they've been paid for, though the site's editor denies this, claiming that rogue staff are responsible.

“I have never once sent a request for a fee to a developer to review their app,” editor Shaun Campbell tells Wired. “That is not our policy, which is why that is not stated in the About.”

However, an update on Wired's story brings this into doubt. Mac Directory editor Matt Marquez reveals in a blog post called 'iPhone app site lies about trading reviews for cash – and I can prove it' that when he applied for freelance work with TheiPhoneAppReview he was told by Campbell that he would be required to solicit expedited review business from developers.

Meanwhile, AppCraver's 'About' section clearly states that it solicits expedited review business automatically when it receives review requests. The site goes on to assure the reader that it turns down reviews for games that don't meet its editorial standards.

Wired points out that AppCraver's expedited reviews are labelled as such, while on TheiPhoneAppReview they aren't.