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Where Do You Go for Worthwhile Product Reviews?

Posted by Cliff on from the head-to-head dept.

An anonymous reader asks: "What's the deal with reviews and product comparisons? My boss wants independent comparative reviews of proxy and web servers to use to make/justify his decision. We all know that what the vendors write about their own (and competitive) products, so I tried searching for 3rd party reviews. I can find heaps of articles on the web telling us how great IIS is or how good Microsoft's Proxy server is, but nothing showing a back-to-back comparison of Squid vs. Sun Java Proxy vs. Microsoft Proxy, and the same for Apache and IIS. What's happening here? Where can I find an honest back-to-back product comparison?"

3 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. Google is your friend... by RuBLed · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Search in google the product you want to review then add the following phrase ", problems"

    I'm sure you would get all the bad side, then weigh which one of the products are the lesser evil :)

    sample query: iis, problems

    1. Re:Google is your friend... by Aladrin · · Score: 5, Interesting

      While I don't use ", problems" on my search, this is basically exactly how I judge products now. I search for the "productx review" on Google, then I open all the links with reviews. I read a few good user reviews, a couple paid reviews, and then I read a TON of bad reviews. If nobody can find anything bad to say about the product, then I know I've found the one I want. If anyone can find bad things to say, I weigh those failings against what I want the product for and whether it will affect me.

      Example: I recently decided I needed a toaster oven. Instead of rushing down to kmart and buying just any old oven, I went online and started doing reviews. Everyone I have told this to basically called me crazy. ("You searched for reviews for a TOASTER OVEN!?") I found that Euro Pro makes an amazing $80 (Macy's) oven. I then looked it up at local stores and found that KMart carries that brand. Unfortunately, the 'best' model was on sale that week for only $5 more than the cheapest Euro Pro, and they were sold out of it and the middle one, too. ($35, $40 and $50 normal prices.) I bought the cheap one anyhow, because I didn't feel like waiting. (KMart doesn't bother to restock things they put on sale because they'll have to honor their rainchecks.)

      It's an amazing toaster oven. I absolutely love it.

      I've used this technique for years. The only downside to it is that you tend to start thinking negatively first, and many products that had you hyped, you will end up not buying them. Kind of a downer. (But at least you didn't waste your money, which is more of a downer.)

      I think if many people started using this method, either product quality would get a lot better, or there'd be a hell of a lot of astroturfing.

      --
      "If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
  2. Here is a good place for unbiased reviews by nightowl03d · · Score: 5, Funny
    I find out everything I needed to know at http://www.slashdot.org/

    Some things I learned include...

    1. The only job a real programmer will take must involve Ruby on Rails

    2. Never buy a MS product

    3. Filesharing music is "fair use"

    4. Programmers should not create closed source programs EVER.

    5. Linux sucks, BSD sucks, MacOS sucks, and Windows sucks. (I am posting from an IBM/360)

    6. The only safe browser is Lynx