This comment made me realize I actually have a very small list of sites that I trust for review content, and that there are large gaps in coverage. For me, it’s essentially:
Wirecutter (now paid I think) for well, a whole lotta stuff in various categories
…and that’s about it. One will note these are both very specific and very narrow catagories, mostly due to both my personal interests, chosen vocation, and life as a renter (so home improvement wasn’t much of a thing). But if I were to search for say, car reviews, home improvement stuff, book reviews, etc - I wouldn’t really be able to know for sure if the site I was on really was an authority or not on any of these subjects. And I wager I am not alone in that regard.
So, over to you! What site(s) out there do you consider to be an authority on product reviews, and for what categories?
I do look at Amazon reviews. Even though I know the site is rampant with fake ones, when I see a product with 10s of thousands of 5-star reviews, i presume that the majority of them are legitimate.
I also scrutinize the 1-star reviews, because they describe the product at its worst.
Amazon 1 and 2 star reviews are the only reliable thing on the internet. I find most complaints on good items are people who either didn’t read the product description or have very specific use cases.
If it’s not a good item, those reviews will tell you right away.
Yeah if I’m searching for a product I’ll usually check Wirecutter first, then I’ll try including reddit on Google searches… sometimes I’ll search YouTube to see someone actually using it. I’ll check Amazon reviews… sometimes a person will write a really long review (good or bad) and that’s often helpful.
If it’s car-related often a specific make/model will have their own forum like https://www.chevybolt.org/
If I’m really desperate sometimes I’ll keep trying different google searches until I find a forum post.
