5 ms·

…And on ones that do. Looks very useful for weeding out actual quality from the muddle. Would love to see someone doing this kind of work with other types of ca

…And on ones that do. Looks very useful for weeding out actual quality from the muddle. Would love to see someone doing this kind of work with other types of cables, too.

synctext 11y ago
Clearly shows the need for a reputation system, not locked into 1 company. Reviews need sharing.
- guelo 11y ago
  Reviews also need massive amounts of human and computer moderation, and that's not cheap.
- ctdonath 11y ago
  Sounds like a Y-Combinator startup waiting to happen.
  - ryan-c 11y ago
    I could see this as a browser plugin - professional reviews of popular products where there are many, many brands of wildly differing quality such as cables and chargers. The problem is it seems that it'd need to be a browser extension, and most shopping-related browser extensions are pretty shady, so reputation would be an issue. I suppose another option would be to just set up a site with reviews and make money with Amazon referral links. I end up buying cables on Monoprice when I can just because the stuff they sell is usually good quality.
  - jarek 11y ago
    How will any company, especially a VC funded company, avoid problems and dilemmas seen by other online-submitted-reviews companies like Yelp that basically turn the company into either a fake review haven or a protection racket?
    - ctdonath 11y ago
      By focusing on what makes this reviewer notable: he's a verified buyer, systematically reviewing products, and with a resume to show he's worth listening to. We don't want reviews from any & all yahoos who sign up, we want reviews from vetted people who have a professional interest in checking numerous products with appropriate knowledge, and can write meaningful descriptions suitable for general audiences. Personally, I'd very much like to see such a thing applied particularly to high-knockoff topics like USB cables (see lead post), camera batteries, printer ink, and other items where a lot of companies are providing a lot of low-price alternatives (some quality, some dangerously bad) to high-dollar brand-name accessories & consumables. For some there's WAY too many options, with HUGE variation of price & quality, to do anything other than either "buy cheap & popular and hope" or "pay thru the nose but it will work". FWIW: if you sign up as an advertising associate https://affiliate-program.amazon.com https://affiliate-program.amazon.com with Amazon you can get up to 10% from every link you provide that turns into an actual sale. Build a website featuring appropriately curated reviews linking to Amazon and you could make a good buck - IF you can get enough readers. Over the years I've made a couple hundred dollars doing so, just by posting links when relevant to blog comments. Focused as a business? I'd expect good returns if done right, plenty to hire good unbiased reviewers.
      - jarek 11y ago
        I'm still not sure this would be a company suited for YC-expected massive growth, but thank you and respect for expanding on the idea.
  - kevinpet 11y ago
    Sounds like a dozen already failed start ups.
- Johnny555 11y ago
  A central review clearinghouse will never happen with cheap accessories like this. If model "1234-X" gets bad reviews, the same product will just be renumbered to model "9863-V2" and even the company name may change. So there's no way to keep reviews associated with the same product -- it's the same reason why there are no good review sites for mattresses across all retailers -- the manufacturers use a variety of names and product numbers for mattresses sold to different retailers, specifically to obfuscate them.
  - vonmoltke 11y ago
    What's worse in the cheap accessories market is it is highly likely that groups of companies are buying and repackaging the exact same cables from the same manufacturer and slapping their own names and part numbers on them. So even if two companies are legitimately different, the product may not be.
  - tetrep 11y ago
    companies doding bad reviews means that companies with good reviews will stand out, making selection easier. as a consumer, i don't care about crappy products unless i end up purchasing them. i can avoid crappy products by only going for products with explicit positive reviews that i can trust. sure a grey area will continue to exist, but whitelisting is still effective for reviews, even if we can't blacklist.
  - TillE 11y ago
    Yeah, you'd need to cooperate with the manufacturer to "certify" only one exact product, and make sure that the certification is revoked when anything is changed. The mattress issue actually sounds like a solvable problem, if you're willing to put in the effort. It's just not really worth it when you can also buy mattresses from IKEA or various online retailers which don't engage in those tactics.
    - mschuster91 11y ago
      > It's just not really worth it when you can also buy mattresses from IKEA or various online retailers which don't engage in those tactics. IKEA manufactures wherever possible for the lowest price. The difference is that IKEA employs quality control measures.
- pbhjpbhj 11y ago
  Reevoo is quite good IMO. Example USB-2 cable: http://reevoo.com/p/startech-com-usb-2-0-active-extension-cable-usb-extender-4-pin-usb-type-a-m-4-pin-usb-type-a-f-5-m-usb-hi-speed-usb http://reevoo.com/p/startech-com-usb-2-0-active-extension-ca.... I've used ebuyer (UK computer retailer) quite a bit and they moved away from their own review system to use Reevoo (the ebuyer one was better IMO however). Still Reevoo seems to have useful reviews in the computer/tech space.
noobermin 11y ago
Reading the headline, it sounded like astroturfing. Instead, he's being helpful and providing some very useful information from his experience as an engineer from google itself. What a thoughful fellow!
- joezydeco 11y ago
  From a engineering point-of-view, he's saving himself a lot of product support headaches down the road when people try using bogus cables and then contacting Google when they fail to operate (or, worse, destroy the hardware under warranty)
- amitnme 11y ago
- maxerickson 11y ago
  In one comment thread he does suggest that buying cables from the Play store would be safer.
  - mikeash 11y ago
    It's probably true, since the Play store only sells one variety of cable, and Google has probably actually vetted it. In which case I can only see that suggestion as a helpful bit of advice for avoiding problems.
    - maxerickson 11y ago
      Yeah, no pitchfork in hand here, but I also wouldn't be surprised if Amazon didn't appreciate that sort of activity.
      - mikeash 11y ago
        For sure. I'd hope they'll be self-aware enough to realize that it would be crappy to yank the reviews or punish the reviewer for recommending another store where the products aren't broken when Amazon is full of broken products. But I wouldn't be very confident of that.
legulere 11y ago
You don't have that issue with cables usually because they don't need to contain active components
Splines 11y ago
Here's a similar analysis for phone chargers: http://www.righto.com/2012/10/a-dozen-usb-chargers-in-lab-apple-is.html http://www.righto.com/2012/10/a-dozen-usb-chargers-in-lab-ap...

…And on ones that do. Looks very useful for weeding out actual quality from the muddle. Would love to see someone doing this kind of work with other types of cables, too.

synctext 11y ago

Clearly shows the need for a reputation system, not locked into 1 company. Reviews need sharing.

guelo 11y ago
Reviews also need massive amounts of human and computer moderation, and that's not cheap.
ctdonath 11y ago
Sounds like a Y-Combinator startup waiting to happen.
- ryan-c 11y ago
  I could see this as a browser plugin - professional reviews of popular products where there are many, many brands of wildly differing quality such as cables and chargers. The problem is it seems that it'd need to be a browser extension, and most shopping-related browser extensions are pretty shady, so reputation would be an issue. I suppose another option would be to just set up a site with reviews and make money with Amazon referral links. I end up buying cables on Monoprice when I can just because the stuff they sell is usually good quality.
- jarek 11y ago
  How will any company, especially a VC funded company, avoid problems and dilemmas seen by other online-submitted-reviews companies like Yelp that basically turn the company into either a fake review haven or a protection racket?
  - ctdonath 11y ago
    By focusing on what makes this reviewer notable: he's a verified buyer, systematically reviewing products, and with a resume to show he's worth listening to. We don't want reviews from any & all yahoos who sign up, we want reviews from vetted people who have a professional interest in checking numerous products with appropriate knowledge, and can write meaningful descriptions suitable for general audiences. Personally, I'd very much like to see such a thing applied particularly to high-knockoff topics like USB cables (see lead post), camera batteries, printer ink, and other items where a lot of companies are providing a lot of low-price alternatives (some quality, some dangerously bad) to high-dollar brand-name accessories & consumables. For some there's WAY too many options, with HUGE variation of price & quality, to do anything other than either "buy cheap & popular and hope" or "pay thru the nose but it will work". FWIW: if you sign up as an advertising associate https://affiliate-program.amazon.com https://affiliate-program.amazon.com with Amazon you can get up to 10% from every link you provide that turns into an actual sale. Build a website featuring appropriately curated reviews linking to Amazon and you could make a good buck - IF you can get enough readers. Over the years I've made a couple hundred dollars doing so, just by posting links when relevant to blog comments. Focused as a business? I'd expect good returns if done right, plenty to hire good unbiased reviewers.
    - jarek 11y ago
      I'm still not sure this would be a company suited for YC-expected massive growth, but thank you and respect for expanding on the idea.
- kevinpet 11y ago
  Sounds like a dozen already failed start ups.
Johnny555 11y ago
A central review clearinghouse will never happen with cheap accessories like this. If model "1234-X" gets bad reviews, the same product will just be renumbered to model "9863-V2" and even the company name may change. So there's no way to keep reviews associated with the same product -- it's the same reason why there are no good review sites for mattresses across all retailers -- the manufacturers use a variety of names and product numbers for mattresses sold to different retailers, specifically to obfuscate them.
- vonmoltke 11y ago
  What's worse in the cheap accessories market is it is highly likely that groups of companies are buying and repackaging the exact same cables from the same manufacturer and slapping their own names and part numbers on them. So even if two companies are legitimately different, the product may not be.
- tetrep 11y ago
  companies doding bad reviews means that companies with good reviews will stand out, making selection easier. as a consumer, i don't care about crappy products unless i end up purchasing them. i can avoid crappy products by only going for products with explicit positive reviews that i can trust. sure a grey area will continue to exist, but whitelisting is still effective for reviews, even if we can't blacklist.
- TillE 11y ago
  Yeah, you'd need to cooperate with the manufacturer to "certify" only one exact product, and make sure that the certification is revoked when anything is changed. The mattress issue actually sounds like a solvable problem, if you're willing to put in the effort. It's just not really worth it when you can also buy mattresses from IKEA or various online retailers which don't engage in those tactics.
  - mschuster91 11y ago
    > It's just not really worth it when you can also buy mattresses from IKEA or various online retailers which don't engage in those tactics. IKEA manufactures wherever possible for the lowest price. The difference is that IKEA employs quality control measures.
pbhjpbhj 11y ago
Reevoo is quite good IMO. Example USB-2 cable: http://reevoo.com/p/startech-com-usb-2-0-active-extension-cable-usb-extender-4-pin-usb-type-a-m-4-pin-usb-type-a-f-5-m-usb-hi-speed-usb http://reevoo.com/p/startech-com-usb-2-0-active-extension-ca.... I've used ebuyer (UK computer retailer) quite a bit and they moved away from their own review system to use Reevoo (the ebuyer one was better IMO however). Still Reevoo seems to have useful reviews in the computer/tech space.

noobermin 11y ago

Reading the headline, it sounded like astroturfing. Instead, he's being helpful and providing some very useful information from his experience as an engineer from google itself. What a thoughful fellow!

joezydeco 11y ago
From a engineering point-of-view, he's saving himself a lot of product support headaches down the road when people try using bogus cables and then contacting Google when they fail to operate (or, worse, destroy the hardware under warranty)
amitnme 11y ago
maxerickson 11y ago
In one comment thread he does suggest that buying cables from the Play store would be safer.
- mikeash 11y ago
  It's probably true, since the Play store only sells one variety of cable, and Google has probably actually vetted it. In which case I can only see that suggestion as a helpful bit of advice for avoiding problems.
  - maxerickson 11y ago
    Yeah, no pitchfork in hand here, but I also wouldn't be surprised if Amazon didn't appreciate that sort of activity.
    - mikeash 11y ago
      For sure. I'd hope they'll be self-aware enough to realize that it would be crappy to yank the reviews or punish the reviewer for recommending another store where the products aren't broken when Amazon is full of broken products. But I wouldn't be very confident of that.

legulere 11y ago

You don't have that issue with cables usually because they don't need to contain active components

Splines 11y ago

Here's a similar analysis for phone chargers: http://www.righto.com/2012/10/a-dozen-usb-chargers-in-lab-apple-is.html http://www.righto.com/2012/10/a-dozen-usb-chargers-in-lab-ap...