How You Can Find the Best Products Using Reviews
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How You Can Find the Best of Anything Using Reviews
Sir Isaac Newton once said that if he saw further than others, it was because he stood on the shoulders of giants. Well the rest of us may not be thinking about life, the universe, and everything. But we can stand on the shoulders of our fellow readers, users, and shoppers and tap their collective wisdom via reviews, to find the best of anything. Let me show you how!
Of Reviews and Spam
Reviews on products from fellow shoppers make for faster, better shopping almost every time. By reading real-world product experiences from others, we can figure out what's good or bad about that new book, movie, gadget, etc. more reliably than buying and trying everything ourselves. You probably use "reviews" all the time without realizing it - a friend's suggestion or a newspaper blurb are reviews too.However, like much else on the Internet, we're getting swamped with spam and drivel, and reviews are part of that rising swamp. If you've read some online reviews, you start noticing some trends, such as not all reviews being helpful and reliable. Many reviews are too short to be convincing. Some reviews are written by flacks and PR shills, or paid for, and can't be trusted. How to separate the "real" and quality reviews from the rest?
Me, You, and Reviews
As a long-time online shopper and an absolute stickler for quality, I'll share my own process of shopping with reviews. Then I'll share a new resource that's even better than my process, because it's faster, never gets tired, and is unbiased...For starters, let me say that I am not a big consumer; my house is not cluttered with stuff, I don't spend my weekends at malls, I don't keep mail order catalogs in the bathroom, and eBay bidding is not my cup of nightly bingo. But I do enjoy finding and getting things of high quality: good books that change my thinking and teach me something; good movies that make me ponder life afresh; well-made tools and machines that reflect intelligent, clever design; these are all things that I like to own and use. I also like to give such gifts too, and get kudos from friends for introducing something truly useful in their lives that they may otherwise have never discovered.
How to Find the Best (or close to it) of Anything
How do I find these quality items? It's simple, but takes time. I'm going to assume we only know the general TYPE of thing to get, e.g. a children's book or a digital camera, but we don't know the exact item to get yet. After all, if we knew the exact item to get, uhm, we'd just get it.
- Determine the type of product you're looking for; this should be easy for you ("I want a book"), maybe a bit trickier for friends ("Does Joe read? What does he read about?").
- If it's a well-recognized type or category (e.g. laptops) then you can just pop over to ConsumerSearch and look at their aggregated reviews; they do a good job of distilling a lot of the professional reviews into short summaries. I have no affiliation with them, I've just found their site useful.
- Otherwise, head to Amazon.com - the world's biggest online retailer. Even if you don't end up buying from Amazon, it's the best place to start, because there are more and better reviews there than anywhere else online, due to their longevity and high volume. Also, they put more controls on their reviews than elsewhere; not perfect, but pretty good.
- Type in your keywords, and search. OR click on Amazon's department listing, and narrow-in on the category of interest: http://www.amazon.com/gp/site-directory/
- Seeing either search results or having clicked to a category of interest, keep narrowing down: either add more keywords, or, click the subcategories on the left hand side of Amazon, under "Department" - the more specific you can be, the less reading you'll need to do later.
- Satisfied with your search results or category choice, narrow down the list using reviews. See what comes up from your search or category listing; organize the results by "Relevance" or "Bestselling" then look for items with at least 4/5 star rating, and at least 10 reviews, preferably 20. Of course, products with 4.5 or 5 stars and over 50 or 100 reviews are definitely to be considered.
- Click on the well-reviewed items; read the most helpful reviews, both positive and negative. Are the reviews convincing? Are there a lot of helpful votes per review? Does the review have specifics and details about the product? Usually the top half-dozen reviews will tell you much of what you need to know. Repeat for each item of interest. If there are too many items, repeat the step above where you used more keywords or clicked on more specific categories.
- I usually manage to winnow down my initial list of products to consider a handful of well-reviewed items. Then I can get it down to just 1-3 after reading reviews. At that point, I know I've "exhausted" the search space and am fairly confident that I'm getting one of the best products in that category.
Being Pickii, and Impatient
Well that's it! But perhaps you find the above process too tedious? Well, me too at times.Thus I created the website Pickii which scans the millions of items at Amazon in a similar manner, building Top 10 lists in over ten thousand categories, looking for what has the best reviews. If you're short of time and need to find something of quality, fast, for yourself or as a gift, give it a try!
I recommend this because...
It will help you find the best product for your needs, with a reliable process you can use yourself, or a tool that will do the same for you, saving you time and helping you find great stuff.
SquiDirectory - Visit the SquiDirectory Squidoo directory, and find something interesting to read about!
SquiDirectory - Visit the SquiDirectory Squidoo directory, and find something interesting to read about!
Sound off!
I think the best consumer reviews are almost always better than professional reviews; especially when these days, consumers are often semi-pro in their skill and experience. And we consumers almost always use an item longer than a journalist or other pro-reviewer, so we know it far better.
Are amateur consumer reviews better than professional reviews?
YES - consumers actually use the item they review at length, so they know it inside out.
NO - professionals get to try a wider range of products, even if they spend less time with each.
Useful Review-based Shopping Sites
- Pickii has just the best reviewed products
- Save time, skip what sucks, and discover great stuff: Pickii uses the best consumer reviews to find the best products for you, with over ten thousand Top 10 lists updated regularly, including books, movies, electronics, home items, and more.
- Product Reviews and Reports - ConsumerSearch.com
- ConsumerSearch.com reviews hundreds of product reviews, analyzes them, distills the information shoppers need and recommends which products are the best.
by zhango
Web programmer and avid reader. I'm a quality-seeking fanatic and created Pickii to help find best-of-the-best products, especially for books. more »
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