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Comment by dazc | Hacker News Reader

Using the example given 'best headphones, I didn't find the results to be so bad as I expected. That said, can anyone suggest an alternative method of providing a viable result for such a query that is not monetized and biased in some way or another?

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I spent a few minutes thinking about this, and crafted

headphones 2023 OR 2024 review "sound" "noise" "wired" OR "wireless" "battery" -amazon -affiliate -commissions

Aaaand the top result is a page clearly written by GPT. So no, I can't suggest any good alternative. It's all trash.

Finding product reviews is next to impossible. Only a few people like DC Rainmaker fill a very specific niche.

It's back to good old word of mouth for me.

You mean honest real ones. I find lots of fake reviews with affiliate links

https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/

However, the Reddit search is atrocious, so you'll either have to try your luck googling, or spend some time in the subreddit.

I recently bought a pair of headphones after asking ChatGPT, the free 3.5 version.

I had a brief conversation with the chat. It offered some options, and I refined my requirements in response. Specifically, after checking what it recommended initially, I told the chat I want wires, I don’t need any noise cancellation, and I absolutely don’t want integration with any cloud services.

I ended up buying Sennheiser IE 40 PRO. Already received and tested. Not sure whether it’s actually the best one, but IMO pretty good model.

I'd say: Not using a search engine for that. Instead, go directly to a relevant reviewer in that niche, and search on their page.

So for headphones it might be something like crinacle.com (via Youtube) and rtings.com (which google will present when searching for headphone review sites), reviewers that provide a proper mix of subjective discussions and objective measurements. Though rtings is monetized.

This is how search for headphone opinions: "What Hi Fi best wired headphones 2023"

In other words I've reverted to a source I trust. Google's little more than a better DNS here. Swapping out the year, that search term's done me proud for 9 years and 4 pairs of headphones.

Best headphones is a pretty bad search phrase though. Best for what?

Add "reddit" to the search query.

Please let me know where this unbiased, monetization-free version of Reddit is.

Reddit itself is monetized, but the people writing the review or suggesting products most likely weren't paid to recommend stuff. Not that there aren't paid shills on reddit, but as long as your BS meter is decent, a quick peek at the poster's profile can confirm whether the suggestions are legit.

It's a bit of work to weed out real testimonies but if you can collect a bunch of reviews and use your own judgement as a final filter. I think that's better than just clicking any of the "Top 10 <product>" sites that google shows on the first page.

Reddit works absolutely fine for this query so long as you dig a little, in the same way you once had to dig a bit for this kind of query on google search, back when it was good.

You just have to review enough threads on the subject to build up a picture and refine your search.

I did just this for noise cancelling headphones before Christmas and reddit was invaluable.

I'm not saying it's useless, only that it is neither unbiased nor free of monetization.

Basically if a machine recommended it to you, its probably trash.

Goes for search results, AI, product recommendations, etc.

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