Toluu

The Ian Bell Weblog

Living Life in High Definition

PowerReviews.com Great Product or Hidden AgendaMay 4 2007

Whoever thought user reviews could be a big business certainly deserves a drink from me. PowerReviews.com has an interesting model in which they provide retail merchants (and other customers) a user review system so their customers can review the products they have purchased. In theory its a great idea. I know when I am interested in purchasing a product, I want to read professional reviews, and user reviews. The problem I have is that I find very very few negative product reviews! The Sony KDLXBR3 40-inch flat panel TV at ABT Electronics is a great example. There are 8 user reviews, and none of them are negative. In fact I am having a hard time finding ANY negative reviews on this whole site. So now you have to ask yourself why? Are the negative reviews being deleted because they hurt sales? And here’s another thing to think about. What if someone posts a negative review on not only a product, but that retailer itself? Isn’t the retailer part of the purchasing process? Arguably, I agree that retailer ratings and product ratings should be treated differently - but I wanted to put that thought out there.

Another thought - If  Power Review is providing the review system for these retailers, and then re-using those reviews on their own site Buzzillions.com 

Audi A5 - My Next CarApril 18 2007

I am officially in love with the yet-to-be-released Audi A5. I think its a beautiful car.

 What do you guys think? Time to trade in the BMW 330? It has a whole 7200 miles on it in two years (I carpool).

 

Adult Swims Low Bandwidth SiteApril 16 2007

The new Adult Swim low bandwidth site is quite possibly the best site I have ever seen.

Digital Trends Content Now Available on MSN CanadaApril 16 2007

Our content has been up on MSN Canada for about a month now, but I wanted to make sure everything was working before officially announcing it. MSN Canada will be using reviews, guides, and videos from Digital Trends. I am excited to be working for with them! You can read the press release about it here.

Did Cnet Copy our Guide to Keeping Kids Safe Online?April 16 2007

March 7th, we posted our guide on how to keep your children safe online. A reader contacted us today to let us know that Cnet posted a section dedicated to the topic a couple weekes after we posted ours. I admit that they did add more in-depth information, and really did a great job informing parents. I guess we should find it flattering that they are borrowing ideas from our writers. We still out rank them on Google for the search term How to Keep your Kids Safe Online. Now go read our story on how to keep your kids safe online, its better, and we do not confuse you with 20 different sections!