Whenever I browse the Android Marketplace, I’m utterly amazed by how many “app reviews” are nothing but spam. The problem is so pandemic that I have to conclude that Google has thus far done absolutely nothing to combat the problem. Shopping in the Marketplace ends up feeling like going through a dirty bazaar, surrounded by panhandlers and con artists looking to make a cheap buck. I don’t care how good the deals may be; if shopping ends up being an annoying experience that makes me feel dirty, I’m unlikely to bother going in the first place. In the Marketplace, that translates to finding nothing but crap reviews, making shopping for any given application basically a crap shoot. Plus, the apps themselves end up looking like schlock you’d find on a spyware site.

If Google’s serious about trying to compete with the iPhone App Store, they need to get off their feet and fix this problem right now.