Meta Review Project... Thoughts?

[cjmcmahon]

Hi all,

I'm a current graduate student in business and am undertaking a project. Basically, I will be starting a website that performs "meta-reviews" for computers/electronics. What this means is I will be collecting a vast amount of both professional and user reviews in various product categories, sort and analyze these to ultimately determine the "best" products (in terms of value and performance, with varying price categories).

The idea behind this is to save the consumer time and improve the likelihood that they will be satisfied with their purchase. For example, let's say you are going to buy an LCD Monitor, mouse, speakers, etc. There are probably literally millions of reviews online to sort through, many of which are outdated, biased, or full of spam. This is a time consuming process that can overwhelm and intimidate many people. By using my website, you would bypass that time and effort and immediately be given a list of "best" products that meet certain standards and review scores.

I would not directly review any products hand-on or sell anything. It would simply be a gateway for the consumer to visit before making a purchase.

My question for you guys: is this something you would use and/or find beneficial for others? I'm just trying to get some pre-feedback and ideas for this. Any comments/questions are appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[ssddx]

a similar idea was suggested not to long ago. the related concept featured a website which would pick a perepheral based upon input questions. in general the same sort of theme: easier searching for the end user.

there are a few major issues to overcome though:

-who gives a 3rd party website to judge which reviews to add and which ones to ignore? granted we all know the fake ones, but legitimate reviews from respectable reviewers often differ.

-this leads me to point two, opinion is a big part of a review. we can all read specifications but some features such as feel, quality, and ease of use can not be quantified by anything other than a personal opinion.

-just because an opinion is old doesn't mean it isn't valid on the product being reviewed. if a product is updated non-physically (lets say updated firmware only) then yes it should be noted if there is an improvement or not but the original review still holds clout.

-do you realize the vast amount of data that has to be manually sorted through to generate a website with enough coverage to be worthwhile? i'm not talking 10, 100 products... there are litterally hundreds of thousands of items in the computer perepherals catagory alone. multiply this by at least a few reviews each and we are speaking of a major undertaking. all reviews have to be sorted through and read by a person as well.

----

while yes, i do agree with your theory that a one stop place for getting "good quality" product reviews is a nice idea, i don't think its going to become a reality.

the major holdback is this: if you don't provide enough variety people will not come because there are better sources out there. if you provide enough variety to attract the masses then the labor required would be to intense.

i could imagine a small team of people building up such a website and perhaps being completely ad-based but for one single person this seems like a major undertaking.

 

[cjmcmahon]

Thanks for the detailed input, ssddx! Your challenges are absolutely correct. As a matter of fact, each product category will be considerably different. The site's results wouldn't necessarily be useful for an extreme enthusiast (although it'd still be a great reference point), but would rather serve best for the mainstream, average consumer.

Certain categories like televisions and laptops have already made me want to claw my own eyes out.

I'm thinking a reasonable timeframe to update product reviews will typically be quarterly. Any longer is like eternity in the tech world, and any less is unrealistic from a labor standpoint.

Long term, teams will absolutely be used.

In terms of variety, there will be roughly 15 major product categories fit into further subclasses based on anything from price to features. I'm currently experimenting with some ratings algorithms that will be individualized per category.

Thanks again for the input! I'll update this as progress is made.

 

[ssddx]

quarterly is an eternity in the tech world. i know most consumers would like reviews up within the month but this would be expecting a little to much from a graduate-development project i would say.

teams are a great idea. if you have at least 6-10 people then you might actually make some significant progress. i'd start with tech 6mo/o to present and work forward to start.

if the idea works out, then yes it could become useful. however, getting it to launch is the hardest part.

 

[rainvie1]

I'm a current graduate student in business and am undertaking a project. Basically, I will be starting a website that performs "meta-reviews" for computers/electronics. What this means is I will be collecting a vast amount of both professional and user reviews in various product categories, sort and analyze these to ultimately determine the "best" products (in terms of value and performance, with varying price categories).

I've been thinking about doing a similar project, but just with PC hardware; CPUs, Graphics, Mobos, etc.

Did this work out for you at all? How did it turn out?