I personally wouldn't use this for gadget recommendations - I am too picky and enjoy the research process too much.
However, for buying a toaster or a microwave or something, I can definitely see this site being useful. Usually I end up going to the store and picking something out based on the blurbs on the packaging - not exactly a prime source of impartial data.
I think most geeks like the research process. Joe Average, though, just wants someone to tell him what to buy. I think this site is utterly brilliant - cashing in on "The Paradox of Choice" (http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_ch...) is a rock-solid idea.
I'm with you on the research process.
I find that what appeals to most users doesn't appeal to me, which means that even customer reviews have to be carefully read to determine what was actually positive and negative. In NYC, for instance, I never trust people who say the staff were rude - staff are typically rude if you're rude to them.
Regarding preferneces, read Gladwell's essay - The ketchup conundrum -http://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004_09_06_a_ketchup.html. It discusses Prego's tomato sauce and highlights something these guys are missing - the concept of customer segmentation. Different people have different preferences. Since when was a one size fits all universally appealing?
Still, I can imagine this being the lazy buyer's dream, I suppose.
Cute and useful, but I'm feeling really dumb about the UI---where do I go to get a "Just buy this one" recommendation for something other than the six items on the homepage? I can't even find the button I'm supposed to click to go somewhere else (although I did discover the recyclables). I feel like I've fallen into a bad flash game, which is unfortunate because I really like the idea.
I upvoted you cause I like the question, but I guess the answer is that this site is better because it makes a decision for you. I tried your idea on Amazon for televisions and sorted by customer rating, but it just felt very intimidating. The first result was $900, and maybe that's more than I want to spend. So I start scanning down the list, and all of a sudden I'm doing something that feels a lot like researching, which is the whole thing I'm presumably trying to avoid.
Now that said, would this actually be useful to me? For the stuff I care about (like, say, a computer) I definitely would not use this site. So it's for stuff I don't care about. Like a kettle. But I'm fine just buying a cheap-ass old school kettle that you don't plug in. So it's probably ultimately not for me. Super clever though!
Well you could say how is "YTinstant.com" different than typing <query> in Youtube and clicking the first result?. I would tell you since YTinstant launched I can count how many times I visited YT. Removing noise is a business.
It's really so you can say "just go to this site" when you have lots of relatives asking you which electronic gadget is best in its class. After all, they really mean "which one should I buy?" Hence the name of the site.
1 product vs 1 + 37 related/upsell products Amazon suggests to you. What might seem obvious to us might be voodoo science to this site's primary market.
Samsung? Really?
It says they have reviewed over 54,844 reviews for their choice of digital camera. But are these reviews credible? Are they autoforms filled by bots? No distinction on the quality of review...merely the quantity.
Will this finally stop family members from using me as this service? I do hope so. Just because I'm "good at all that computer stuff" does not mean I automatically know which TV is best for you.
I feel the opposite way. A year or so ago, I went with my Mom to Fry's to buy a big TV. I looked around and told her what to get. She ignored me and listened to the salesperson. Now she has a no-name TV that cost more than the Samsung we were going to get. It irritates me to this day.
I would never purchase something like a TV or a laptop without thoroughly investigating it first. Could maybe be useful if you're looking to get a gift and are crunched for time. There should be a way to access the reviews though.
Precisely my thoughts. I want this service for stuff that doesn't matter that much to me but I can accidentally spend too much time researching (easy to do on the internet). Tell me what umbrella to buy, kitchen supplies, etc.
Of course the obvious counter argument is that what's not important to me is to someone else. So of course what this site really needs is just much more coverage.
I agree.. but I love the site.. I feel like it needs some social validation, though. Long term maybe the site will be well-curated enough to get a reputation that makes it unnecessary.. but right now, I feel like I need a peek at some evidence that these products are as awesome as suggested.
Also, having bought my fair share of consumer electronics, I've found that the research and anticipation of buying a product is sometimes as much fun as the afterglow of owning it.
It's worth bearing in mind that people who buy mid-range are also more likely to solidly review a working product than people who buy a high-end product; if I buy high end, I'm going to be a lot pickier, and likely more critical of the product. I wouldn't say it's necessarily an apples-to-apples comparison.
Or you would convince yourself that the widget is pretty awesome since, to be honest you paid a hefty price tag - which a sane person wouldn't do for a sub-par product?
There's a huge problem with user generated reviews in general that makes it very hard to go by top rating. Some peple will give 5 stars to a mediocre product, some will give 2 stars for a perfect product just because they wish it was something else (example: the # of people complaining that the Breville is made of plastic, at least the us verson gets that complaint a lot). At the last office I worked at we had the Breville kettle for a few years. Everyone in the office drank tea, so it was in use nonstop. It lated longer there than I did. I'd say it performed admirably, and if I was going to buy a plastic kettle in that range, I'd buy that one. I'd rather not be boiling water in a plastic container, but I'm not going to reduce the rating for it, unfortunately many other people will, so stars don't necessicarily have a strong correlation to quality/durability.
I recommend Kallow (http://www.kallow.com/). I've made 5 purchase decisions based on it. I was very happy with all but one and they've since stopped recommending it.
Well configured doesn't mesh into a "just buy that one" mindset. As others have stated. If you are picky about a product this isn't the service for you but if you just need something of X where X is a microwave or toaster, you normally just one one that works well.
They can still buy the recommended one (assuming you trust the opinions of those in the UK!). You can't follow the links, I guess, but at least it makes the decision of which one to buy easy.
I suppose it makes sense that they're targeting people who aren't picky and are just looking to buy something they won't regret in that category, but there's a HUGE gulf to me between buying a Dell with Windows 7 and a Macbook running OSX.
I kept confusing it with justbythis.com which gives a blank page. Awesome site!! Probably going to buy the compact digital you recommended - but at Costco, not amazon. You might consider rounding up sponsors without losing your organic/objective data to solve the Costco-guy problem.
I'm surprised that no one has yet compared this to hunch.com. While Hunch is kind of an arbitrary question platform, it seems especially suited to product selection.
I'm torn between loving the brutal simplicity and wanting them to add more products. I'm guessing if it's successful there's no way they don't add more products/categories.
Hi Mike. I hope not... I'm a real person. I used this site last week to buy a TV (the entry-level one) and loved it. I have started using it when non-technical people ask me which (TV|netbook|etc) to buy because it's pretty, and you know they aren't going to go that far wrong. If they don't like the one they get: http://www.justbuythisone.com/what-is-roomservice - which is better than my friends normally get from me!
I did find out about it because we work with the guys who built it (http://www.reevoo.com) but I thought the HN crew would enjoy it - it feels to me like a hardware version of this classic XKCD: http://xkcd.com/627/
Heya, I work at Reevoo and helped build JustBuyThisOne.
We pick the price we show from Reevoo's price comparison, choosing the cheapest price from the 400 shops we list prices from - so we're pretty confident we're showing the best product at the best possible price. I'd love to know if we're missing somewhere with dirt-cheap prices, though.
One caveat is that we don't use Amazon Used&New prices for JBTO, just cause things tend to be sold in very low quantity there and so go out of stock really quickly.
When I saw the domain name, I thought it was about you giving it a couple e.g. laptops (that someone probably recommended you) and the site would compare them them automatically and tell you in plain english how they stack up.
For this, you'd probably need a huge database of product properties (let alone products), but that's conceivable. See, for example, http://market.yandex.ru/guru.xml?CMD=-RR=9,0,0,0-PF=21425576... – these are all TV models with WiFi and 3D support that Yandex knows about (see there are a lot of filtering options on the right)
I like this and wish they had a US version. Their no-cost no-hassle return system makes me a lot more inclined to just trust their recommendations even if the review systems they are built on top of are somewhat flawed. If you don't like it, no big deal.
I _love_ the design. I noticed that the font for "Just buy this one" inside the orange badge is aliasing, both on the main page and when it appears smaller on other pages. I find it detracts from the shear prettiness of the pages.
I don't know how to answer this without being harsh, but, what else did you expect? I mean, Windows XP is hardly the typophile's platform of choice, is it?
My point is that people using Windows XP must be used to ugly type, because type in general looks ugly on Windows XP, so it's not worth worrying about. The only solution is to render everything as images, or use Flash, or something equally horrible. Why bother if ugly type is par for the course?
Why? For the same reason that people cut flowers and put them in a vase in the middle of the table. Or that people shine their shoes, wash their cars, cut the lawn, trim their hair. Hint: it's not because they have to.
You don't have to render _everything_ as an image or flash to get the most eye-catching element on your landing page to look perfect.
I'm a bit obsessive about researching things I buy, so the idea of just picking something seems like a relief. Then again, having had gadgets with one flaw that annoyed the crap out of me, I'm driven back to research. (For example, a DVD player that suddenly decided that 1) a parental controls limit had been set and needed a password to override (0000 worked fine), and 2) EVERY movie was above that limit, including Lady and the Tramp, which is a children's movie from the 50s for goodness' sake.)
Yo eof, I hear you're some sort of technology guy.. I really need advice on which toaster to buy, what do you think? Oh I think toasters are overrated, what about a kettle?
It's hard to say. Kettles certainly aren't an expect kitchen appliance/item like a drip brew coffee maker. Though at the same time I don't think I've ever been in a home owned by some one over 30 that didn't have a kettle some where in the house.
Personally, I wouldn't use the TV recommendations as I generally recommend getting a plasma rather than LCD unless you absolutely need a TV smaller than 42", are concerned about power usage more than picture quality, have direct sunlight hitting the screen for a large portion of the day, or are going to use the display a mostly still image 24/7 (e.g. airport flight schedule).
Otherwise, the picture quality of plasma TVs are dramatically better than LCDs.
Interesting. I've always avoided them because of burn in -- it doesn't happen all that often but occasionally a friend comes over or something and leaves rock band or a dvd at the title screen as we're going out somewhere and I don't notice. Basically it's the thing where you go into best buy and all their plasmas have burned pictures in them because... well, people are dumb and mistakes happen. Thoughts?
I, too, went the LCD route initially because I thought the burn-in issue was important enough to go that route, but ended up exchanging the LED-LCD I bought for a plasma and was much happier.
I have my plasma TV set to automatically shut off after 3 hours of inactivity. Also, I have the "pixel orbiter" feature turned on which periodically slightly shifts the picture around (not noticeable to the human eye when it happens).
From what I have heard (in places like avsforums and elsewhere), newer plasma TVs are much harder to permanently burn, especially after the initial break-in period; it is pretty much a thing of the past. You'd really have to try really hard to make it happen (leave it on a still image for more than several days), and I think an auto-shutoff of 3 hrs will prevent that. I don't have any scientific data to prove this, though.
I haven't been a long-term owner of a plasma TV yet (bought my first HDTV set about a year ago), so I'm not a good data point, but in that year I have not experienced any such problems and we leave things paused or on menus all the time. I expect that some day my plasma display will show signs of age. Supposedly, the green phosphors tend to age faster than the blue and red, which will cause a shift in color. But that could be 10 to 20 years from now. And LCD is not immune to aging; the 9-year-old LCD monitor I am using right now has had uneven brightness all over the screen in weird blotches for the last several years. I assume its a backlighting problem; but it doesn't bother me as I've adjusted to it and I continue to use it. If my plasma ever develops burn-in, I'll probably adjust to it in the same way.
The difference between LCD and plasma for me is this: with LCD I find myself noticing all the artifacts -- the colors being unrealistic, the motion blurs, the flashlight effect (backlighting being noticeable on dark scenes), etc. Processing like judder correction and blur correction just makes things worse because it makes film look like it was shot with a video camera. LED-LCD TVs are especially bad (I owned an edge-lit one for a few weeks before returning it), because the colors are even more unrealistic than with CCFL-backlit, though maybe the newer tri-color ones are better.
Whereas, with a good plasma TV I can just watch the content because there are no artifacts and deficiencies that I can see. The colors are closer to what you can expect from a CRT. Also, plasma displays seem to smooth out pixelation; I can watch video that is very low resolution and it looks great fullscreen on the plasma while it doesn't look good fullscreen either on my LCD or CRT computer monitors. I guess you can say that plasma is slightly less sharp, but this works out in its favor.
One of the big differences is: with plasma each pixel is actually producing its own light, whereas with LCD you have backlights shining through the pixels which is why LCDs are not even. Also, plasma looks the same from all angles, whereas with LCD you generally have to be center (vertically and horizontally) for the best picture, though some LCD TVs pull this off better than others. Side note: OLED displays also have each pixel producing its own light.
Maybe I am really picky (I didn't realize how picky I was until I started shopping for HDTVs last year) and the typically consumer wouldn't be as concerned and only videophiles care enough about the difference. But I think coupled with the fact that plasma TVs are generally cheaper than LCD TVs for equivalent quality and sizes, and the fact that I think with the more expensive LCD TVs you are paying for tech that is compensating for the inherent defficiencies with the technology (e.g. local dimming to make up for the lower static contrast ratio), I think plasma is the better buy for even the typical consumer.
I think the slight risks of possible plasma burn-in in the distant future are way too small to choose what I think is the less suitable technology for TV/film viewing.
If you happen to see this reply -- I have one last question you may have input on. My friend Google has been of limited use in figuring out the positioning of plasma when it comes to gaming. Not just burn-in (HUD's and such) but also ghosting. Comments? :)
As someone considered to be the digerati of my family, I'm very excited to see a website to which I can direct my uncle this Thanksgiving. Great domain name, too.
There's a site called Consumer Search (http://www.consumersearch.com/), which is similar, but IMO superior. It aggregates reviews from different sites, including user reviews, giving them various amounts of weight based on their apparent credibility and thoroughness.
Another plus is that it covers a lot of products, and gives a pretty comprehensive overview of their findings.
Seems to be a nice service, but on the downsize may turn into a sensationalist type of site such as any of those offers of the day sites, which is not bad at all but may require heaps of cash in order to purchase hellofatrafficstream in order to get people to commit and reduce their boune rate.. just watch that and be aware of what the market tells you to do..
Samsung as the best choice in compact digital cameras? I'm torn between thinking this is an instant loss of credibility for the site, and thinking maybe I should take a closer look at that Samsung model. But leaning just a bit toward the former. This kind of reaction from users could be an ongoing challenge for them.
Had a similar idea a while back, but mine was for the best, cheapest product in a category. Nearly every category has that gem where you'll save a lot of money without sacrificing too much on performance. Was going to call it something like BestCheap. Thoughts?
If they become even moderately successful, I will always be worried that the big brands / local importers - just bought the top slots and the site is nothing more than a marketing tool.
The suggested Kettle has 11 1-star ratings on Amazon out of 28 reviews... I don't think it's "The best fucking kettle" Apparently it only lasts a few months.
However, for buying a toaster or a microwave or something, I can definitely see this site being useful. Usually I end up going to the store and picking something out based on the blurbs on the packaging - not exactly a prime source of impartial data.