From a (cynical?) content and affiliate point of view, I like the style of taking user questions (bonus points if H.B. is a real person) and answering it - rather than just a bland list of products by "expensive but good, less expensive but less good" that wirecutter is.
This lets the authors also recommend extra tangential items ("get a projector!").
On another note, my trust in these types of things have gone down overall (every google search for "best yadda yadda" yields a list with affiliate links now, unless perhaps you append "reddit" to your search).
Wirecutter still has some trust for me. Anyone else?
I thought the answer was terrible. It’s wrong in saying you must buy a smart tv to get a reasonable display panel (this comment section does provide good non-smart options), condescending to the question, needlessly verbose (sounded like early versions of chatGPT to me tbh), and is uncritical in its assumption that opting out of data collection means that you won’t be tracked.
Agree. In my magazine editing days I’d have sent this back to the contributor for a rewrite. The premise of a technical agony aunt column should not be arguing with the reader and telling them “well actually, you do want this”.
Yeah I think Wirecutter and I sucked it up and signed up for a consumer reports subscription. Anecdotally I thought there was a period (maybe 2017?) where Wirecutter was becoming less trustworthy (maybe it was when I was looking for a mattress) but I feel like the quality has returned since then. I think I especially appreciate them for their more detailed sections below the summaries. Such as unlisted products and how they tested.
Other than Wirecutter and consumer reports I feel all I have is sleuthing Reddit communities and even then it’s hard to tell if the users aren’t undercover salespeople
Web search is useless, yes. Use Wirecutter, Consumer Reports, rtings.com, reddit, not necessarily in that order. You can't trust any one of these sources to have the same priorities as you do, but you can trust that they're giving you useful, original, non-link-farm-SEO-garbage information.
Wirecutter helped me find a brand of toilet paper that doesn't turn my bathroom into a dusty wasteland, so for that alone I'll always at least entertain their recommendations. Have yet to be led astray by any of their picks.
This lets the authors also recommend extra tangential items ("get a projector!").
On another note, my trust in these types of things have gone down overall (every google search for "best yadda yadda" yields a list with affiliate links now, unless perhaps you append "reddit" to your search).
Wirecutter still has some trust for me. Anyone else?