Epinions.com

I wrote a few reviews for Epinions.com yesterday. It's a nice looking and informative site, but it doesn't seem to be as immediately informative as CNET.com reviews. The reviews written by average people have different angles than those written by the professionals.

A professional reviewer likely has several similar widgets to compare the widget to. This can give them insight that the average consumer won't have. On the other hand, the professional reviewer doesn't spend much time with said widget, so they typically can't comment on the durability and long term usage of it.

The typical consumer won't have as much of a baseline to compare something to, so reviews are more often either rants about something that they are having problems with, or a glowing review about something. Then there's that small segment that will refuse to acknowledge that they bought a piece of junk.

I don't want to seem like I'm saying that there aren't great, balanced reviews on Epinions.com. The inherent problem with the site is that you have to sift through the reviews to find ones that you find relevant and trustworthy. The site designers have done a decent job of giving you tools to help you with the process, however.

Overall, I think Epinions.com gives the consumer one more tool in the journey towards making a good decision.