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The problem with reviews from individuals (trusted friends or complete strangers), is that for major purposes they only get to deeply evaluate a single product. So they could tell you if they are happy with the fridge they bought, but they wouldn’t be able to do a detailed comparison between multiple fridges.

This will lead to you getting a product that’s good enough, but there may be a superior quality/value option that you don’t know about

Yeah, but it might be a satisficing approach. Most of us don't really need to optimize an appliance purchase, just not get screwed.

Could have been an interesting application for social networking. (Friend of a friend)^n. I’d probably trust most of my friends, and most of their friends, not to be bots. Probably want to see the links, past that.

That review platform is called "the phone", "hanging in the pub", "having a get-together".

Friendship requires regular contact anyway. We don't need somebody to intermediate that.