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Izzard's avatar

Product reviews are hard to find - any suggestions?

Asked by Izzard (70points) December 29th, 2007

I find this really annoying. I have a product in mind and I want to find reviews of it. For example, let’s say an Olivetti JP90 printer. So I go to Google and search for “Olivetti JP90 review”. This tends to return a lot of results from review sites – which would be fine except for one thing: the way the sites are design ensures they feature in search results even if there’s no reviews.

The review sites create pages for as many products as they can – even when no-one has reviewed the product or made a comment. They title it something like “Reviews and views of the XXXXX” so that you think you’re going to find some information but all you actually see is “No-one has reviewed the product yet. Click here to be the first to write a review.”

Obviously I could specify ’-“write a review”’ in my Google search terms to filter out pages with this phrase – but pages that DO have a review will likely have this phrase too. Any ideas?

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5 Answers

jonno's avatar

Ah yes, I hate it when that happens to me too.

The best way would be just to find printer review sites with Google (try searching “printer reviews”) then look up your printer there.

jonno (1067points)“Great Answer” (0points) Flag as…
gcross's avatar

I would look for an industry-wide professional reviewer, such as Consumer Reports if I am looking for a washing machine or cnet.com if I am deciding between software products. Subscribe to them generally or set up a google alert that includes the product name and the reviewer’s name together.

Also check the manufacturer’s website. For PR reasons, most of them will have links to reviews of their products. These reviews may also offer clues to help you word your searches and google alerts more effectively.

gcross (272points)“Great Answer” (0points) Flag as…
kevbo's avatar

I usually read amazon, cnet, and sometimes a big box store

kevbo (25675points)“Great Answer” (0points) Flag as…
andrew's avatar

I’m a big fan the site consumerreview.com. Their reviews aren’t the most up-to-date, nor do they have every product listed (I go to amazon for that), but they are a great place to start when you’re researching—a real comparison made by real people.

And of course, there’s the best site of all… this one.

andrew (16562points)“Great Answer” (0points) Flag as…
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