ProductSifter

ProductSifter.com is an English language product review website whose content is generated by specialist consumer journalists from around the world. As such it is an example of online journalism. Unlike other web 2.0 offerings, ProductSifter does not publish amateur user-generated content. Rather, it is a professional product review site and uses only professional critics whose qualifications and credentials are established and can be independently scrutinised.

ProductSifter.com is owned by the UK company ProductSifter Limited and is headquartered in London, England. It was launched in 2006 and is classified by Yahoo as a consumer advocacy site.

Characteristics and Content

ProductSifter carries reviews of a wide range of consumer products and services as well as reviews of travel destinations. The majority of internet links on the site are non-commercial, directing users to additional, background or technical information. Journalists contributing to the site identify what are in their view the best five products in their specialist area, classifying them according to consumer need, citing reference sources and explaining their reasoning. For each set of products recommended, the site publishes a critical “overview” of the area giving background, warnings and buying tips.

Differentiation from other review sites

ProductSifter.com is distinguished from other consumer product review sites in a number of ways:

*While sites such as ReviewCentre.com, Amazon.com and Epinions.com publish anecdotal reviews from users, ProductSifter pays for objective reviews written by professional consumer journalists with recognised expertise in their field. Their work is checked for balance and accuracy by other journalists before publication;
*There are no anonymous reviews; all writers are named and a brief resume of their credentials is given at the head of each review. In most cases the writer’s name is linked to a more detailed biography, enabling site visitors to assess for themselves the writer’s qualifications);
*ProductSifter.com differs from organisations such as Which? or Consumer Reports, both of which also compare products within categories, but also produce magazines. ProductSifter is not published in a paper form and no registration or subscription is required.

Background

ProductSifter describes itself as “run by journalists”. (see also CEA/Yahoo study) and partly as a reaction to the related phenomenon of user-generated review sites being manipulated by businesses and others.

Discussion

While it is now generally accepted that online opinion has a big influence over purchasing decisions, there are also questions on the value of user reviews on two main counts: first that users are often moved to write reviews only when their experience of a product is at the extremes of bad or good; and, second, a user may write a review based on experience of only one product in any category (ie, the one they happened to buy) and thus they may lack any real knowledge with which to draw comparisons. Kevin Kelly, writing on CoolTools, puts it succinctly when he says: "The fault of user reviews, however, is that they often have narrow experience and no sense of what else is out there. This is the chief weakness of (user reviews); they judge too much on an item's own merits and not on how it compares with similar products or substitutes". There are also well-documented cases of individuals and companies presenting reviews of their own products as if they are from a customer: this has led to a new European Directive which will outlaw falsely presenting oneself as a consumer in internet reviews in Europe from the end of 2007.
ProductSifter endeavours to avoid such criticisms by using only accredited journalists. The social-networking site Lifehack.org (a site dedicated to lifefacks, ie, ways to do things more efficiently) describes ProductSifter as an example of "journalists doing something useful for once".

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