Crowdsourced reviews and directory service Yelp has made its long-expected debut in Australia, launching sites for Sydney and Melbourne that collect together reviews of restaurants, shops, hotels and, in the words of Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman, “anywhere that has an address”. More »
If you’d like a broad look at how well received a film is before you head off to the cinema, ffflick combs Twitter to generate crowdsourced movie reviews. More »
Online reviews have changed the way we shop, and mostly for the better. We’re certainly more informed consumers, but online reviews aren’t always trustworthy. Savvy consumer blog Consumerist offers a few tips for spotting fake online reviews. More »
Hotel review site Oyster.com won our admiration with their revealing, if limited, photo fakeouts series. Also worth checking out before you book? Their blog’s “Bundle Breakdowns” section, which similarly shines a light on package deals that aren’t actually deals. More »
TwitCritics leverages the constant flow of positive and negative movie references on Twitter to give a peek at public opinion on what’s playing at cinemas. More »
Reviewing where you are and where you’re going is a critical, but oft overlooked, part of personal development. Get in the habit of giving yourself a weekly review. More »
Web-based movie review index FlixPulse might not provide the voice of rationed wisdom on how good a movie is, but it’s a nifty way to see what the uber-connected Twitter community has to say on it. Real humans scan through film mentions across the short-messaging community, then group them into good, bad, or indifferent piles to compile a percentage. Of course, most people aren’t going to Twitter about movies they found only reasonably good, but it’s a great conversation starter and, occasionally, a refreshing dip in the schadenfreude pond. FlixPulse [via Download Squad]
Web site ReviewGist gathers the results of expert reviews from around the web to give you a better understanding of the pros and cons of a potential purchase. Aside from its deep analysis, which dives into the nuts and bolts of what a reviewer liked and disliked about a product, ReviewGist also provides a great comparison tool to check the ratings of similar products side-by-side. While a lot of people tend to stick to the consumer reviews on the site they’re purchasing from, like Amazon, ReviewGist looks like a great place to check out the broader merits of a product before making a big purchase.
I’m pleased to say that while I was at the OLPC love-fest that was Linux.conf.au last week, I managed to snag one of their XO mini-laptops to review. We have two in the household so we’ll be able to test out some of their cool mesh networking capabilities. I’m also keen to see how it stacks up as a mini-laptop compared to the *other* geek toy du jour, the ASUS Eee PC.Watch this space for the full review plus pictures. :) More »
