My new year’s resolutions are the same ones I’ve had three years running, which is not a good sign. However, I am learning the tricks and getting a little bit better every year. One of those tricks is that I’ve learned to make myself accountable to someone for each of my goals and to open myself up to criticism and feedback. In return I’m happy to nag friends, edit my sister’s college papers and generally criticize anyone who asks.

But a writer for Android Central pointed out that it would be in everyone’s best interest if we were to perform that service as consumers in addition to as friends and family members. Return policies for apps aren’t great and not just for Android devices. Therefore, users rely heavily on consumer reviews to choose whether or not to spend the time and money to download a new app. Developers look to the same reviews to find out what problems users have with the apps and where they can work on improving their products. But in order for that system to work, people need to actually sit down and review apps after they have used them.

The web version of Android Market has recently made reviews even more useful by allowing you to filter reviews by things like device or different versions of the app. Looks like even Google has been listening to feedback and working to improve things. This new feature means that reviews can be a really convenient tool but it’s up to us as users to make that happen.

This isn’t just true for Android apps though. Consumer-Rankings.com does a lot of research and can be very helpful but it’s impossible for us to check out the myriad of ways that every individual user out there will want to use a product. That is why we also ask for you as the consumer to add your two-cents to our opinions.

So don’t be shy: speak up!