Buzzillions Blogs

We’re happy to announce that we recently added product reviews from HSN.com and the official New Balance store (nbwebexpress.com) to Buzzillions.

• Two great brands
• Over 10,000 new products
• More than 100,000 new product reviews

A little video about New Balance’s Skowhegan, Maine factory:

A user recently wrote to Buzzillions to complain that the reviews for a product were too positive (many 5 star ratings) and seemed too well written to be from regular people.  So how can they be sure that manufacturers aren’t “stuffing the system with their self serving 5.0 reviews of themselves”?

First of all, Buzzillions never pays people to write reviews.

Secondly, all reviews submitted to Buzzillions (most of our retail partners too) are moderated by an expert team.  There is no automatic approval system.  Everything is looked over by a group of real people.  They make sure that the reviews follow our guidelines but they also make sure that the reviews are authentic.  Our moderators would never screen out negative reviews.

One thing you can look for is the “Verified Buyer” badge that appears next to a review.

This means that the review was actually written by a person that bought the product.  What happens is that when a person buys a product online, the retailer will send them an email a couple of weeks after delivery to ask them to review the product.  Note the retailer only asks them to write a review and does not pressure the person to write a good review.  Buyers who click through on the email link to write a review are those we can verify as actually having purchased a product.

Thirdly, you may have already noticed, but people are generally happy with products they have bought.  Makes sense given all the research that they usually do before buying them.  Chances are more than likely that they’ll really like the product they ended up buying.  In the rare case that they don’t, they tend be very angry.  This is a well documented phenomenon called “response bias”.  People are more likely to write a review if they feel strongly about a product, which is why you see so many 5 star reviews, few 1 star reviews and very little inbetween.  When you look at a rating system of 1 - 5 stars you might expect the 3 stars to represent average.  However, in reality the average is skewed positive and is closer to 4 stars.  This has been documented by a study of products on Amazon and you can see it at Buzzillions as well.  You can read more about this in a great article from 2007 by Farhad Manjoo.

Buzzillions provides you several ways to combat response bias in order to figure out the real value of a review.  If you click on the arrow at the top of the page next to “xx reviews” you can see the Ratings Distribution for that product and the Category Average.

The Ratings Distribution will show you if the reviews tend to be towards the two extremes or if they are more likely to be balanced.  Looking at the example above you can see most of the reviews are extremely positive and maybe should be read with a grain of salt.

The Category Average will tell you the average star rating for all products within the same category.  You can use this information to help judge the star rating of that product (or a specific review). In this example, you can see that reviews for all point & shoot cameras skew positive because the category average is 4.2.  Therefore when you read a 5 star review, you should keep in mind that although it is above average, it’s not that much higher than the 4.2 star rating for all digital point & shoot cameras.

Michael Jackson RIP

You could hear a pin drop in the office today when we heard that the King of Pop had shaken off his mortal coil - hopefully with a shimmy, a couple of heel spins, and the signature crotch grab. They say that human beings are like snowflakes; if that’s the case then MJ sizzled early — and spring will never be the same.

We’ll leave you with a list of albums and memorabilia you can pick up on BZ, or just write a review of your favorite album. Link

Beat It into the afterlife, MJ… We wish you Peace.

There are so many weird bacon products on Buzzillions that I couldn’t choose just one.  Something for everyone here:

The Serious Carnivore - Wild Boar Bacon

It’s not overly gamey, but it tastes slightly sweet with an almost bourbon flavor to the meat. I fried my eggs in the leftover fat afterwards…

Astronaut/ Disaster Preparedness Enthusiast - Mountain House Precooked Bacon & Eggs

I suppose the MSG could be partly to blame for how great this bizarre substance tastes, but there is more to it than just that, and it can only be understood by those who understand.

Vegetarian - Bacon & Eggs Costume

Most fun ever

Alan, an account manager on the Buzzillions team, recently got his Honda Element tricked out with a pop-top camper.  Southern California company Ursa Minor converted his SUV into an ECamper complete with 7′x4′ matress and Sunbrella fabric tent panels. Alan claims it’s for camping, but we’re not so sure. After all, it earned the dubious distinction of being the #7 Car You Can Live in After Your Home is Reposessed.  Either way, it’s a pretty awesome vehicle, reminiscent of the VW Westfalia.

Whether you prefer an Ecamper or a traditional tent, we have all the camping gear product reviews you could possibly need here (don’t forget the portable hot tub). If your car needs a tune-up before you hit the road, check out the car part reviews from JC Whitney, our newest Buzzillions partner.