I checked the notebook reviews and found them incredibly useless. First I searched for "best overall" and got a bunch of Dell XPS and Lenovo Thinkpads, which while respectable, are terribly overpriced. Naturally, I next searched for "best price" and got a bunch of outdated notebooks or 7" ultra-mobile computers that have the specs of a TI-83 calculator. Disheartened, I settled on the "most recent". Sadly, I once again got a bunch of overpriced Dell notebooks; and what's worse, they had no specs on display(because they are new), so I couldn't even compare price to specs to determine if it is a good buy. This site has a novel idea, but, unless you want to find the most raved about computer and buy it without regard to price, as a lifehack, I'd say it just doesn't cut it.
Newegg.com on the other hand...

kilroy2

From their site:
"The average user saves 3 hours of time by using ReviewGist."

I doubt it. Thats a bit of an extreme claim.

Teufelhunden

A site that performs a similar function but approaches it differently and executes its mission nicely is [www.consumersearch.com] The tagline is "reviewing the reviews" and that's exactly what they do. For any given product, they review the most recent reviews from print publications and the web. They tell you which source does the most thorough reviews of that product, and they summarize any consensus opinions after reviewing all the reviews. They have a "quick summary" section which tells you something like "most reviews liked products A & B the best, but if you're looking to save money, check out product C..." They also will point out discrepancies between what the reviews saying and some of the criticisms expressed by users on Amazon. I still read Amazon reviews (and Newegg when it's an electronic product) but this is a great site for a birds-eye view.

bradnh

Not impressive.
I much prefer opinions of actual owners of stuff as opposed to a bunch of dot com reviews just trying to sell anything to you.
I'm sticking with Epinions.

ShortOnZeros

Something weird happened there...I posted first, I swear it! :p

Thermopyle

A site that performs a similar function but approaches it differently and executes its mission well is [www.consumersearch.com] Their tagline is "Reviewing the reviews." For any given product, they review which publication or website does the best and most in-depth reviews, and how current that source's most recent review is. Then they summarize the reviews by discussing which products received the most high scores, and which aspects of the products the reviewers found most important. They also will sometimes point out when Amazon reviewers are at odds with the publication/website reviewers. I still look at Amazon reviews (and Newegg when it's electronics), but this is a great site for a birds-eye view of a product. The one caution I would give is that I wouldn't necessarily trust their "pricing" feature for the lowest price on that product, but for browsing ratings, it's excellent.

bradnh

@bradnh: Agreed. I have looked to Consumer Search for a number of purchases and they have been most helpful.

da5id_nz

I've been using ConsumerSearch for years and it seems to be superior to ReviewGist.

[www.consumersearch.com]

Thermopyle

Ah, jeez, I'm sorry. I was sure the first post didn't go through. So I re-posted. In the meantime, @thermopyle seemed to have swooped in and beaten me to the point. Every time I use "preview comment" I get nuthin' but trouble. Now I'm all verklempt...

bradnh

I was not too impressed with the depth of information in their camera comparisons.

I found digitalcameratracker.com to be much more useful for getting lots of camera reviews in one place.

Here, for example, is what they collected on the Panasonic TZ3, my camera.
[www.digitalcameratracker.com]

tbbx

This article is getting clipped. I can't tell you how many times I put the product name I want in + review, and all I got was site selling the camera w/ no reviews, but inviting me to be the first. Badly needed sites like these.

Git Em SteveDave

To get the real scoop on a product you've got to get it from someone who purchased it with their hard-earned money. They will be less tolerant of product quirks and have a keener eye on functionality after shelling out $1,000 to use it.

User reviews will tell you if the product is going to break two months down the road. Or how well the product really performs under normal use. Users will tell you that you may have to tweak it to get max performance out of it. They'll tell you if they've encountered any incompatibility issues suing it with other products. They'll tell you reasons why they would or would not buy it again.

Editorial reviews are great for info on how well specs measure up and out-of-box performance. But with electronics these days, you have to have info on how well a product performs after its been used for a few months. Nothing beats users reviews for this kind of info.

Lambasted

Can I ask some help from fellow Lifehacker readers? I'm looking for a good, albeit cheap above 5mp digital camera that is real good at macro shots. Does anyone have any suggestions of a camera(s) to keep my eye for?

Git Em SteveDave

try retrevo.com. i love their interface and their recommendations and ratings have been pretty spot on

jadeddjay

Steve Dave, I've been pretty happy with the Panasonic LZ5 for macro shots. The current version is the LZ7.

naveed

@kilroy2:

Thanks for checking reviewgist out. I would just like to add some quick replies to the very relevant points you raised.
1. For "Best overall",we essentially go by the one which has best features (irrespective of the price). The way we understand that this works out for shoppers is that we expect them to specify a price bracket to look at the best one in their range.

I think you are looking more at something which is "value for money" rather than best overall. That definitely makes sense to have as a filter - we will definitely give it a shot to see how we can implement that.

We also totally understand the need to maintain comprehensiveness w.r.t. specs and price for the buzz products and are definitely working towards doing a better job on that.

Nishant Soni
Founder, ReviewGist

nishant_reviewgist

I've had some good luck using [www.productcritic.com] to check out digital cameras. They only have professional reviews though. I still use [www.epinions.com] for user feedback (but I don't like wading through all the unhelpful user reviews). I tried [www.consumersearch.com] but while I like the 'review of reviews', I wanted to get my hands on as many pro reviews as I could.

Kotter

You have to love this algorithms:
"no detectable shutter lag" in a digital camera is seen as a bad review point in the highligthed review extracts!
The site might be useful but I agree that user reviews are better.

elpix