6 ms·

One thing I've found useful is following specific reviewers. For example, Peter Norvig reviews many, many programming and CS texts. He has both glowing reviews

by xiaoma 10y ago

One thing I've found useful is following specific reviewers. For example, Peter Norvig reviews many, many programming and CS texts. He has both glowing reviews such as this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/review/R30AQNQK2I1O7P?ref_=glimp_1rv_cl http://www.amazon.com/gp/review/R30AQNQK2I1O7P?ref_=glimp_1r... And scathing ones such as this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/review/R2C7L5KHUVHOR2?ref_=glimp_1rv_cl http://www.amazon.com/gp/review/R2C7L5KHUVHOR2?ref_=glimp_1r... By following several reviewers I respect in each domain I care about, it's not hard to find quality texts (or products) that I'd never have found by typing words into Amazon's search box and looking at average review scores.

simonswords82 10y ago
Great idea - This sounds like an idea for an app as finding and following reviewers you can trust manually sounds like a chore.
- sparky_z 10y ago
  How do you know you can trust the app, though?
  - jameslk 10y ago
    The app would need to have its own reputation to protect (i.e. a brand). I think the best approach for this is an app with a large community behind it. For a while, that seemed to be Epinions. I'm not really sure why it didn't work out for them.
  - uptown 10y ago
    Maybe somebody can write-up a review.
    - OJFord 10y ago
      We could have an app to follow the ones we trust.
  - wmeredith 10y ago
    It's turtles all the way down.
  - simonswords82 10y ago
    Transparency. The app would need to be open enough about how it found and vetted trusted reviewers for people to take it seriously.
  - perseusprime11 10y ago
    No problem. They will find vendors to review the app to bump it up in the app store.
- commandar 10y ago
  Funny thing, the site linked in the OP is sort of an attempt at that. They look at a type of product, look at reviews, narrow down to a few different models, and test them out, and basically say "get this one." I actually use their sister site the Sweethome more than the Wirecutter. I tend to be an obsessive prepurchase researcher, and so far I've been happy with their recommendations.
  - petra 10y ago
    The wirecutter is great for finding the best product. It's less focused on deals though.
aandon 10y ago
Agreed, the best thing you can do is Google "_____ product review" and look for credible reviewers, someone with a reputation to protect. I worked with a product company where v1 had some product flaws and started receiving negative reviews, but it was very easy to overwhelm those with fake positive reviews across the web. Then when we came out with a much better v2, we got a scientist in our field with some following to do a short positive video review. That is difficult to get (I'm not talking about YouTube/Instagram/mommy blogger reviewers who give positive reviews to anyone who will send them free product) and there's no way he would have put his name on the line unless he had tried out the product on his own extensively. Any product company worth its salt should know this and get a few of these expert reviews posted to the web.
hkmurakami 10y ago
A Googler reviewing every USB Type C cable (and leaving scathing reviews for ones that suck) comes to mind. http://gizmodo.com/a-google-engineer-is-publicly-shaming-crappy-usb-c-cabl-1742719818 http://gizmodo.com/a-google-engineer-is-publicly-shaming-cra... http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A25GROL6KJV3QG/ref=cm_cr_rdp_pdp?tag=gizmodoamzn-20&ascsubtag=ac0ae1fabade4e73c38d53c2ca51c3e4a93b27e3&rawdata=%5Br%7Chttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F%5Bt%7Clink%5Bp%7C1742719818%5Bau%7C5836322932740811680%5Bb%7Cgizmodo http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A25GROL6KJV3QG/ref=cm_c...
- Orangeair 10y ago
  That's a great example too, because Amazon actually ended up following up and banning cables that were found to be non-compliant with the spec, largely based on his reviews: http://lifehacker.com/amazon-bans-non-compliant-usb-c-cables-should-make-for-1767935544 http://lifehacker.com/amazon-bans-non-compliant-usb-c-cables...
  - hanley 10y ago
    He recently fried a Chromebook with one of those bad cables. Can't find the source right now but it was posted here on Hacker News.
  - click170 10y ago
    I like that they've said they'll start banning the cables, but I'm disappointed that - from my reading of the article - Amazon isn't doing any testing to detect these bad cables and are instead relying on customer reviews to report bad cables. That means for most cables someone's going to have to buy a cable and have it damage their device or have the equipment and know-how to detect it ahead of time. Having Amazon test every cable obviously doesn't scale either but couldn't they require the vendors to provide test results showing that the cable is spec compliant? Of course the vendor could forge the results, but that's intentionally malicious and this would at least catch non-malicious accidents.
    - hinkley 10y ago
tormeh 10y ago
I own Java How to Code by Deitel, which he references in the review of the Python one by same company. It's terrible. I actually literally, not figuratively, used it to sleep at one occasion. It's huge, which is a bad thing. It only deals with language features, which is worse. It has lots of examples, which would be a good thing if they weren't so verbose and boring and can't fucking get to the point. If you read this, not only should you not buy a Deitel programming book, but you should tell all your friends not to buy one as well.
rossng 10y ago
Amusingly, there is an obviously-fake review for exactly the same product as your scathing example. http://www.amazon.com/review/R1UCB6JLZ6TRTN/ http://www.amazon.com/review/R1UCB6JLZ6TRTN/
steve-benjamins 10y ago
This is what I try do. I review website builders at sitebuilderreport.com— but I actually in-depth reviews (for example: I pay for each website builder with my own credit card to test their cancellation policies). The hard part (I think) can be establishing that trust— getting the reader to understand that hey, I'm a real guy, who's really spent a lot of time looking at website builders.
B-Con 10y ago
This has been my approach to following the news as well. Bias can be subtle and poor reporting isn't always easy to spot until you see another piece. But if I follow a couple specific people, though, I know how to place what they say in context. It helps. What I find interesting is that the Internet has been long acclaimed for it's ability to give anyone an equal voice and to remove focus from authority and context put the focus on just the here-and-now content. But here we are lamenting the fact that context and credibility of the source are actually incredibly useful.
home_boi 10y ago
Does anyone know how to find good reviewers on Amazon?
brown9-2 10y ago
This is essentially the idea behind The Wirecutter.

by xiaoma 10y ago

simonswords82 10y ago

Great idea - This sounds like an idea for an app as finding and following reviewers you can trust manually sounds like a chore.

sparky_z 10y ago
How do you know you can trust the app, though?
- jameslk 10y ago
  The app would need to have its own reputation to protect (i.e. a brand). I think the best approach for this is an app with a large community behind it. For a while, that seemed to be Epinions. I'm not really sure why it didn't work out for them.
- uptown 10y ago
  Maybe somebody can write-up a review.
  - OJFord 10y ago
    We could have an app to follow the ones we trust.
- wmeredith 10y ago
  It's turtles all the way down.
- simonswords82 10y ago
  Transparency. The app would need to be open enough about how it found and vetted trusted reviewers for people to take it seriously.
- perseusprime11 10y ago
  No problem. They will find vendors to review the app to bump it up in the app store.
commandar 10y ago
Funny thing, the site linked in the OP is sort of an attempt at that. They look at a type of product, look at reviews, narrow down to a few different models, and test them out, and basically say "get this one." I actually use their sister site the Sweethome more than the Wirecutter. I tend to be an obsessive prepurchase researcher, and so far I've been happy with their recommendations.
- petra 10y ago
  The wirecutter is great for finding the best product. It's less focused on deals though.

aandon 10y ago

Agreed, the best thing you can do is Google "_____ product review" and look for credible reviewers, someone with a reputation to protect. I worked with a product company where v1 had some product flaws and started receiving negative reviews, but it was very easy to overwhelm those with fake positive reviews across the web. Then when we came out with a much better v2, we got a scientist in our field with some following to do a short positive video review. That is difficult to get (I'm not talking about YouTube/Instagram/mommy blogger reviewers who give positive reviews to anyone who will send them free product) and there's no way he would have put his name on the line unless he had tried out the product on his own extensively. Any product company worth its salt should know this and get a few of these expert reviews posted to the web.

hkmurakami 10y ago

A Googler reviewing every USB Type C cable (and leaving scathing reviews for ones that suck) comes to mind. http://gizmodo.com/a-google-engineer-is-publicly-shaming-crappy-usb-c-cabl-1742719818 http://gizmodo.com/a-google-engineer-is-publicly-shaming-cra... http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A25GROL6KJV3QG/ref=cm_cr_rdp_pdp?tag=gizmodoamzn-20&ascsubtag=ac0ae1fabade4e73c38d53c2ca51c3e4a93b27e3&rawdata=%5Br%7Chttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F%5Bt%7Clink%5Bp%7C1742719818%5Bau%7C5836322932740811680%5Bb%7Cgizmodo http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A25GROL6KJV3QG/ref=cm_c...

Orangeair 10y ago
That's a great example too, because Amazon actually ended up following up and banning cables that were found to be non-compliant with the spec, largely based on his reviews: http://lifehacker.com/amazon-bans-non-compliant-usb-c-cables-should-make-for-1767935544 http://lifehacker.com/amazon-bans-non-compliant-usb-c-cables...
- hanley 10y ago
  He recently fried a Chromebook with one of those bad cables. Can't find the source right now but it was posted here on Hacker News.
- click170 10y ago
  I like that they've said they'll start banning the cables, but I'm disappointed that - from my reading of the article - Amazon isn't doing any testing to detect these bad cables and are instead relying on customer reviews to report bad cables. That means for most cables someone's going to have to buy a cable and have it damage their device or have the equipment and know-how to detect it ahead of time. Having Amazon test every cable obviously doesn't scale either but couldn't they require the vendors to provide test results showing that the cable is spec compliant? Of course the vendor could forge the results, but that's intentionally malicious and this would at least catch non-malicious accidents.
  - hinkley 10y ago

tormeh 10y ago

I own Java How to Code by Deitel, which he references in the review of the Python one by same company. It's terrible. I actually literally, not figuratively, used it to sleep at one occasion. It's huge, which is a bad thing. It only deals with language features, which is worse. It has lots of examples, which would be a good thing if they weren't so verbose and boring and can't fucking get to the point. If you read this, not only should you not buy a Deitel programming book, but you should tell all your friends not to buy one as well.

rossng 10y ago

Amusingly, there is an obviously-fake review for exactly the same product as your scathing example. http://www.amazon.com/review/R1UCB6JLZ6TRTN/ http://www.amazon.com/review/R1UCB6JLZ6TRTN/

steve-benjamins 10y ago

This is what I try do. I review website builders at sitebuilderreport.com— but I actually in-depth reviews (for example: I pay for each website builder with my own credit card to test their cancellation policies). The hard part (I think) can be establishing that trust— getting the reader to understand that hey, I'm a real guy, who's really spent a lot of time looking at website builders.

B-Con 10y ago

This has been my approach to following the news as well. Bias can be subtle and poor reporting isn't always easy to spot until you see another piece. But if I follow a couple specific people, though, I know how to place what they say in context. It helps. What I find interesting is that the Internet has been long acclaimed for it's ability to give anyone an equal voice and to remove focus from authority and context put the focus on just the here-and-now content. But here we are lamenting the fact that context and credibility of the source are actually incredibly useful.

home_boi 10y ago

Does anyone know how to find good reviewers on Amazon?

brown9-2 10y ago

This is essentially the idea behind The Wirecutter.