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Comment by csmajorfive | Hacker News Reader

Me too. Great, unbiased reviews are going to be even harder to come by now.

How ever did we get reviews before Amazon affiliate programs?

News organizations and magazine publishers paid for them with advertising and subscription revenue.

The implication here was that we used to have good reviews before this. I disagree. I'd gladly dump all of cnet and engadget down the drain for half of The Wirecutter.

Their win was realizing that I don't give a shit about reading about the latest tech news on new product X. I just need an in-depth review for each product category that is done by an expert, exposes the best products I can get for each part of the tradeoff spectrum, and is kept up to date as time passes by. That's all I need. So many times I've done my own research for days and came up with the same 2-3 results that they have, so I don't even bother anymore. I'll be very sad if The Wirecutter dies.

We already had a publication for that called Consumer Reports. CR goes the extra mile of not running ads in the first place. Wirecutter simply tried to eat their cake and have it too, and that cake just got a lot slimmer.

The UK has something like that as well, Which (which.co.uk). Costs about £10/mo and is entirely subscriber-funded.

Nope nope nope. Consumer reports just doesn't get it. They're great from the consumer advocacy perspective, but again they fill their site with stuff I don't care about.

The pleasure of the wirecutter is that the decisions are made. I look for their top choice of wifi routers, then I read about why. In the off chance I disagree, I read the other entries. It explains by what aspects each other product is better or worse than their pick. Perhaps I want a cheaper one? A specific brand? More range? Done in under ten minutes.

I realize everyone is different, but what I love about the Wirecutter is that I don't want to waste my free time reading expert product reviews and comparing specs, and CR encourages exactly that. Any minor benefit from having that information exposed really gets drowned out by my frustration.

I'd never heard of wirecutter before. Every 6-12 months I (or a family member) will want to make some kind of largeish purchase, and I go hunting for reviews and try to figure it out on my own. I think this site is going to save me a lot of time and headaches.

http://www.consumerreports.org

Consumer Reports is really a different sweet spot though. I haven't subscribed for a long time and use them very little but I was always a lot less impressed with them for many types of consumer electronics than I was for large household appliances or cars.

CR is great but there are whole categories of products they do not address at all. Also, since they have no ads, it's a relatively expensive subscription.

Unbiased.

Only if the item is sold by Amazon (or a competitor with commission), otherwise the item won't be reviewed or discussed at all.

Well to be fair they also sell an immense amount of products, it's not like they are limited to in-house brands. You could spend many lifetimes reviewing just one product category on Amazon.

That's provably false since Wirecutter sometimes links to other sites with (AFAIK) no commission for the top product.

If it is provably false then prove it. I just looked at Wirecutter and all I see are commission based sites for top products, I am at ten pages and counting.

I'm on my phone, but unless I'm mistaken:

http://m.thewirecutter.com/reviews/the-best-windows-ultraboo...

http://m.thewirecutter.com/reviews/which-macbook-should-i-bu...

Both Apple and Dell are affiliate program links.

You know what? This dude has had like 40 laptops or something... he is probably the least qualified person to tell me what to buy. I don't want someone who hasn't had to deal with the computer for the long haul. I mean, shit... I can go to Bestbuy and set-up a camera and do the same shit review. I can form an opinion based on 10 minutes with the laptop, then copypasta the other reviews of that particular piece and move on to the next one.

Then 6 months from now after I've reviewed dozens of different laptops for the same amount of bullshit time, do it again with the old reviews... rinse, repeat. No day to day needed... just go over it once for a few hours, make some bullshit recommendation, then call it a day. Bullshit.

Not unbiased.

I have seen products which are not superior quality but are ranked as #1. Generally best are third or below ranked products.

You are right... these rankings are as manipulated as the S&P with HFT. The FBA'ers use clever marketing, pay per click and paid reviews to get ranked higher. Has ZERO to do with quality.

if by "ranked as #1" you mean on amazon's pages, then that is unrelated to this change. this change is for amazon affiliates (or using amazon's terminology, 'associates') who promote or review products on third-party websites.

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