Buzzillions Blogs

I’m pretty confused with regard to shopping for a dishwasher as 5-stars don’t/doesn’t necessarily mean it’s in the top 100.

Another great questions from a Buzzillions fan.  You’re browsing Buzzillions, you see a product with a 5 star rating, but it’s not in the top 10 or even the top 100.   What gives?  Believe it or not, friends, there is a method to our madness and it’s called… The Buzzillions Top Rated Algorithm.

You’ll notice that when you get to a category page, dishwashers for example, the default sorting of the products is “Top Ranked”.   Instead of merely sorting products by 5 star, then 4 star and so on, we’ve designed a more intelligent system.  This system pushes products to the top that:

• Have a high average star rating
• Have a large number of reviews
• Have recent reviews
• Are in-stock on a merchant site

Our aim is to be confident and accurate in our recommendations.  If a product has one 5 star review and another has 200 4.7 star reviews, we’re more sure that the second product is a great product.  The 5 star product with one review might be a great product, but we just don’t have enough customer opinions to determine that.  We make sure products stay fresh & relevant for users by giving products with recent reviews that are in-stock an edge.  Without those controls, you might see a 2007 laptop ranked #1 – not exactly helpful.

The nice thing about Buzzillions is that our results are 100% based on consumer feedback and product attributes.  We never allow merchants, manufacturers, or any third party for that matter, to pay for better placement or otherwise influence product rankings.

The Buzzillions Reviewers Choice Awards tell you which products were ranked 1-5 in hundreds of categories in 2008.

Thanks for the great question! Coming up next: learn more about finding low-ranked products & negative reviews.  Have your own question? Comment here or email feedback@powerreviews.com.

Tech Closeup recently caught the Buzzillions team on camera doing what we do best.  Look closely & you can see our CEO’s (in)famous swagger. You heard it here first: read reviews, don’t get screwed!

Sometimes our site is not quite as self-explanatory as we think it is.  Case in point, we got an email from a Buzzillions fan who has used our site numerous times for product research.  His question?  How in the world to write a review of his own.  For all those who have wondered the same thing, but who have been afraid to ask, here’s the answer in three easy steps:

• Find the product you want to review. The easiest way to do this is to go to Buzzillions, type the name of your product into the search box, and click “Search”.  Once you find the product in the list of results, click on it & go to the product detail page.

• Click the Write a Review link. Now that you’re on the product detail page you can find the link in the bottom right-hand corner of the “Review Snapshot”.

• Write your review. Note that you’ll need to login or sign up for a Buzzillions user account to do write a review (it’s free & easy).

Before it can go onto Buzzillions, your review has to be approved by our moderation team.  Check back in a few days to see your published review.  If you can’t find your product on Buzzillions let us know at feedback@buzzillions.com.

Keep the questions coming!