All of the google results are articles that were obviously written by a machine and recommend the same ten most popular products. There are communities for every conceivable type of product on reddit, but they are all full of people saying things like "this $ 500 toaster is a pretty good starter, but you'll soon want to upgrade to this $ 1200 one, it has a much fuller set of features." I've had to resort to watching youtube videos, but even those are unreliable because they benefit from calling each product the best or worst ever.

I feel like it wasn't like this just five or ten years ago. Did things actually change, or am I just misremembering?

  • ButtBidet [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I feel like searching on Reddit gives you honest feedback, although I might be wrong.

    • Uncle [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      I append "reddit" to my search query if I ever want to read about what real people think. This has mixed results because real people can be real dumb, but it's better than reading advertising disguised as information.

      • howdyoudoo [comrade/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        4 years ago

        same. I usually click 3 or 4 threads to get a decent spread. And I always check the account age and posting habits when they recommend something that costs money (not foolproof, but a 6 year old redditor who has lots of posts about DnD and overwatch is more likely to be real)

      • cresspacito [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        You can always check their history to see what kind of dumb they are. That's why I like to ask questions here, at most people are smarter and at least they share a similar worldview to me

    • carlin [he/him,comrade/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      4 years ago

      yeah it's definitely helpful for a lot of stuff

      however I was looking for electric toothbrushes and all the comments are

      "oral b good, sonicare bad"

      "no sonicare bad, oral b good"

      so Idk. Also it's purposely unclear what the difference between them are at the different price levels, so even more idk

      • emizeko [they/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        4 years ago

        been pretty happy with burst, gentler than my old sonicare