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Even off Amazon I feel it's becoming more and more difficult to find honest product reviews. For example, if I search on Google for "best umbrellas", every resu

Even off Amazon I feel it's becoming more and more difficult to find honest product reviews. For example, if I search on Google for "best umbrellas", every result on my front page is a website that is filled with Amazon affiliate links. I feel like none of them can be trusted because most have never touched any of the umbrellas, but they are just doing a top 10 list and rewriting opinions they read on Amazon. Of course, they don't even consider products outside of Amazon because they wouldn't receive commission on sales. So, no one is talking about the small companies producing high quality, handmade umbrellas throughout the country, but instead every source funnels traffic to the same made in China Amazon clones.

ChuckMcM 8y ago
Yup, and since you can generate those pages algorithmically it's easy money for a clever coder.
ABCLAW 8y ago
I don't mind the affiliate links, but I mind dishonest or low quality churned reviews. When TV shopping, I used the reviews from https://www.rtings.com/ https://www.rtings.com/ They pointed me to issues and concerns with TV quality, provided me with an understanding of the trade-offs at various price points, and then directed me to a TV model that I purchased and have been incredibly satisfied with. Maybe we need a reputable internet equivalent to consumer reports. We obviously have demand, the question is how to finance it. I think consistent, ethical, non-conflicted third party quality reviews can be a solid lifestyle business. Won't be a unicorn, but it'll keep a few people gainfully employed and make the world a bit better.
- ams6110 8y ago
  Well? What's wrong with Consumer Reports? Sign up, pay for it, done. Why does valuable information that takes a lot of time and expense to produce need to be free? That attitude is the root of most of what's wrong with the web today. s/internet/web/
  - kiba 8y ago
    I have a problem with being nickeled and dimed with every subscription service.
    - jhall1468 8y ago
      The whole reason it's subscription is to avoid advertisers. CR doesn't have to answer to manufacturers so their reviews are very reliable.
    - ams6110 8y ago
      CR is $7.95 a month. Sign up for a month when you're making a major purchase. If it saves even 10 minutes of research time, that's value enough for me.
    - URSpider94 8y ago
      Subscription fees are literally the only source of income for Consumer’s Union, the parent company of Consumer Reports. They don’t take ads, they don’t take payments for reviews, and they don’t sell rights to use their ratings in advertising (they sue companies who reference their CR ratings in any kind of marketing material).
  - derefr 8y ago
    Most people are only going to ever buy one or two things that are important enough to them to need to be thoroughly comparison-shopped. If there was a Consumer Reports-alike where I could pay "per report" (like paying for investment news "per report"), I'd pay. But I wouldn't subscribe.
    - jperras 8y ago
      > If there was a Consumer Reports-alike where I could pay "per report" (like paying for investment news "per report"), I'd pay. But I wouldn't subscribe. I subscribed to CR for a month when I was shopping for a new dishwasher. After I found what I wanted, I unsubscribed. That seems functionally equivalent to what you want, at least when applied to large ticket items where the cost of a month of subscription is a small percentage of the total cost of the purchase being made.
- function_seven 8y ago
  > Maybe we need a reputable internet equivalent to consumer reports. We have one. It's cr.org
  - nitrogen 8y ago
    Why don't they ever show up in search engine results?
    - function_seven 8y ago
      Not sure. I assume because they're paywalled and won't allow clicks from a search engine to view the content? I don't know what the rules are around that.
- dawnerd 8y ago
  Their headphone reviews are top notch too. They do actual measurements on them to determine how they actually perform rather than some reviewer spewing garbage about how the sound stage is so warm.
function_seven 8y ago
My solution to this has been to find a subreddit that's devoted to the product in question. If there is one, then I'll check the sidebar there, read through some posts, search for a few keywords. Basically spend 15 minutes researching. Reddit still has shills and astroturfs, but for a lot of niches they're often aggressively moderated out of the community. To go along with your umbrella example: Unfortunately /r/umbrellas isn't a thing, but I did find this thread[1]. Sprinkled throughout the comments are links to sites that seem to be on the up-and-up. [1]https://www.reddit.com/r/BuyItForLife/comments/a4afrg/guys_do_you_know_any_umbrellas_that_would_last_a/ https://www.reddit.com/r/BuyItForLife/comments/a4afrg/guys_d...
- potatofarmer45 8y ago
  This is a good idea. I'll do it from now on
- Ecolog 8y ago
  Reddit is so useful in that regard. So many niches with honest and detailed reviews that I usually don't buy something online without checking a relevant subreddit first.
  - Razengan 8y ago
    That statement itself seems like astroturfing. How can one be sure those subreddits don't have any paid posters? When you have a popular post that reaches the Reddit front page, you may receive messages from people asking if you'd like to promote their products.
    - JustSomeNobody 8y ago
      You can't be sure of anything. All you can do is use multiple sources and aggregate the data.
    - Unklejoe 8y ago
      > How can one be sure those subreddits don't have any paid posters? My guess is that they eventually will (and I'm sure some already do). However, one thing that kind of helps weed out the fake reviews is the fact that you can inspect a user's post history.

ChuckMcM 8y ago

Yup, and since you can generate those pages algorithmically it's easy money for a clever coder.

ABCLAW 8y ago

I don't mind the affiliate links, but I mind dishonest or low quality churned reviews. When TV shopping, I used the reviews from https://www.rtings.com/ https://www.rtings.com/ They pointed me to issues and concerns with TV quality, provided me with an understanding of the trade-offs at various price points, and then directed me to a TV model that I purchased and have been incredibly satisfied with. Maybe we need a reputable internet equivalent to consumer reports. We obviously have demand, the question is how to finance it. I think consistent, ethical, non-conflicted third party quality reviews can be a solid lifestyle business. Won't be a unicorn, but it'll keep a few people gainfully employed and make the world a bit better.

ams6110 8y ago
Well? What's wrong with Consumer Reports? Sign up, pay for it, done. Why does valuable information that takes a lot of time and expense to produce need to be free? That attitude is the root of most of what's wrong with the web today. s/internet/web/
- kiba 8y ago
  I have a problem with being nickeled and dimed with every subscription service.
  - jhall1468 8y ago
    The whole reason it's subscription is to avoid advertisers. CR doesn't have to answer to manufacturers so their reviews are very reliable.
  - ams6110 8y ago
    CR is $7.95 a month. Sign up for a month when you're making a major purchase. If it saves even 10 minutes of research time, that's value enough for me.
  - URSpider94 8y ago
    Subscription fees are literally the only source of income for Consumer’s Union, the parent company of Consumer Reports. They don’t take ads, they don’t take payments for reviews, and they don’t sell rights to use their ratings in advertising (they sue companies who reference their CR ratings in any kind of marketing material).
- derefr 8y ago
  Most people are only going to ever buy one or two things that are important enough to them to need to be thoroughly comparison-shopped. If there was a Consumer Reports-alike where I could pay "per report" (like paying for investment news "per report"), I'd pay. But I wouldn't subscribe.
  - jperras 8y ago
    > If there was a Consumer Reports-alike where I could pay "per report" (like paying for investment news "per report"), I'd pay. But I wouldn't subscribe. I subscribed to CR for a month when I was shopping for a new dishwasher. After I found what I wanted, I unsubscribed. That seems functionally equivalent to what you want, at least when applied to large ticket items where the cost of a month of subscription is a small percentage of the total cost of the purchase being made.
function_seven 8y ago
> Maybe we need a reputable internet equivalent to consumer reports. We have one. It's cr.org
- nitrogen 8y ago
  Why don't they ever show up in search engine results?
  - function_seven 8y ago
    Not sure. I assume because they're paywalled and won't allow clicks from a search engine to view the content? I don't know what the rules are around that.
dawnerd 8y ago
Their headphone reviews are top notch too. They do actual measurements on them to determine how they actually perform rather than some reviewer spewing garbage about how the sound stage is so warm.

function_seven 8y ago

My solution to this has been to find a subreddit that's devoted to the product in question. If there is one, then I'll check the sidebar there, read through some posts, search for a few keywords. Basically spend 15 minutes researching. Reddit still has shills and astroturfs, but for a lot of niches they're often aggressively moderated out of the community. To go along with your umbrella example: Unfortunately /r/umbrellas isn't a thing, but I did find this thread[1]. Sprinkled throughout the comments are links to sites that seem to be on the up-and-up. [1]https://www.reddit.com/r/BuyItForLife/comments/a4afrg/guys_do_you_know_any_umbrellas_that_would_last_a/ https://www.reddit.com/r/BuyItForLife/comments/a4afrg/guys_d...

potatofarmer45 8y ago
This is a good idea. I'll do it from now on
Ecolog 8y ago
Reddit is so useful in that regard. So many niches with honest and detailed reviews that I usually don't buy something online without checking a relevant subreddit first.
- Razengan 8y ago
  That statement itself seems like astroturfing. How can one be sure those subreddits don't have any paid posters? When you have a popular post that reaches the Reddit front page, you may receive messages from people asking if you'd like to promote their products.
  - JustSomeNobody 8y ago
    You can't be sure of anything. All you can do is use multiple sources and aggregate the data.
  - Unklejoe 8y ago
    > How can one be sure those subreddits don't have any paid posters? My guess is that they eventually will (and I'm sure some already do). However, one thing that kind of helps weed out the fake reviews is the fact that you can inspect a user's post history.