Some shoe models like these have over 1,000 product reviews:

Casual Shoes with over 1,000 product reviews:

• Dansko Professional
• Sperry Top-sider
• Rockport World Tour

Sandals with over 1,000 reviews:

• Kids’ Keen Newport

Sneakers with over 1,000 customer ratings:

• Converse All-Star Lo

How many reviews does your favorite shoe have?

Check out these categories for the best product reviews from The Finish Line and others:

Sporting goods product reviews

Running & fitness product reviews

Running shoe product reviews

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.

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!

• 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!

Like most late night infomercials, you get the feeling that life is a pain.  What are the actors in The Snuggie commercial tired of?  Blankets. Blankets that slip off, trap your hands, don’t work and otherwise FAIL. Enter The Snuggie, a wearable blanket.  Yes, you may look like a Franciscan monk, but at least you can answer the phone while wearing it.

We have over 20 reviews of The Snuggie.  While the commercials touts its snuggly, warm quality, many reviewers write of the products thin fabric and poor quality.  It doesn’t wash well and smells funny.  Some people didn’t seem to mind and loved its functionality anyway, it’s likely some pub crawlers are among those positive reviewers.

There was a time when buying an as-seen-on-tv product was a complete gamble.  Though the commercials are compelling, there was no real way to tell if a product was a good buy.  Retailers didn’t stock it, so you couldn’t even see it in person before purchasing.  Increasingly, people share their opinions and read reviews, knowing that they no longer have to buy blindly.  Now if we could get more of those bar hoppers here to write a review or two we might find out just how well it holds up after a long night of drinking.

While the cult status is comical, there are surely people who fully intent to wear it at home, and not as a joke to the local pub crawl.  Where do you find out if two Snuggie blankets are worth $24.99?  Where do you find out if the infomercial promises are to be believed? Not surprisingly, right here at Buzzillions.

Happy Shopping, The Buzzillions Team

In the beginning, the concept was simple…Create THE product review destination so people could buy the right product confidently. The founding team of this company had created the review system for the Sporting Goods retailer Fogdog.com. In fact, I even got to speak to Amazon’s Jeff Bezos about it (albeit briefly enough that I know he doesn’t remember). He sat on our couch in the engineering dept and it was a ratty green couch so I liked him right away. That was it for our “friendship” but our common destiny was cemented. 

Now that we’ve passed Epinions in comprehensiveness and relevance, we’re setting our sites on how to provide THE single best website to the customer who just needs to get in the know before he or she buys. I’ve included some early screenshots to document our journey  (too bad the wayback machine is basically useless in the CSS era). Enjoy!

Original Concept (2006 – before the name Buzzillions):

Buzzillions concept (2006)

Private Beta site (Jan-Mar 2007 – website name still not chosen):

Buzzillions Private Beta (Jan-Mar 2007)

 Buzzillions Launch (April, 10th 2007):

Buzzillions Launch (April 10th, 2007)

Buzzillions 1st Birthday (April, 10th 2008):

Buzzillions.com today (April 10th, 2009):

Buzzillions today (April 10th, 2009)

slickdeals.net:

This forum based website is addictive, snarky, fast paced and filled with incredible deals.  Powered by members (anyone can join) users post deals they find online and in Brick and Mortar stores.    Users are intense, and hell bent on finding the lowest deal using cashback offers, coupon stacking, free shipping, promotion codes and more.    Newbies beware.  Do your homework before you post a deal and make sure it hasn’t been posted already on the site.  The professional deal hounds are apt to flame you.

retailmenot:

• Retail me not provides listings of coupon codes and offers from all over the web.  They also leave up expired coupons as sometimes these still work when they are not taken out of a retailer’s stystem.  Coupons are ranked by the probability of them working.

  

  supercook:

• While there are tons of cooking sites out there, there aren’t a lot out there geared towards you spending less.  Supercook works like this:  type in the ingredients you currently have in the house and Supercook searches a number of recipe sites and up pops the recipes that you can make right now, tonight, from those ingredients.  Type in chicken breast, breadcrumbs, lemon, butter and up pops a recipe for Lemon Baked Chicken. Less waste in your fridge, more ideas about what to do with those pantry items. It’s not a miracle worker; it can’t make Chicken Cordon Bleu out of salami, peanut butter and leftover pizza, but you get the idea. Money saved.
• 
• PaperBack Swap:
  • “Mail a book. Get a book. Any book you request is yours to keep, share or trade. No late fees. No processing charges. No hidden charges. Every time you mail a book to another member, you can request one for yourself from over 3 Million.”  I know, I know, use the library.  But if you’re like me, your library books languish somewhere in the back of your car for months on end.  Yes, you mean to return them, but somehow…  With PaperBack Swap you can also keep the book.  If you just love it too much or maybe the kids spill juice all over the critical plot points, it’s okay.  Bonus:  the online postage program – print labels from your computer and avoid the post office wait.

  lastminutetravel:

• 

  I didn’t set out to have two travel sites on this list, but I feel these are two that don’t get a lot of attention and deserve it.  Both I learned about through slickdeals.net when members would post excitedly about $25 hotel rooms in London.  While most flights you find here are non refundable, the deals are incredible.  The best hotel deals are “undercover” – in other words, they simply say 4 star hotel in Vancouver, $52 a night.  You won’t know the name of the hotel until you book.  Keep your toiletry bag packed and maybe an overnight bag too and take advantage of rooms and flights that aren’t filled.

  

  heyitsfree.net:

A bare bones blog, that posts one thing and one thing only, free stuff.  If subway is giving away a free sandwich on Fat Tuesday, you’ll find it here.  Free t-shirts, work out cd mixes and a mail-in kids tonsillectomy kits (does not include scalpel) were just a few of the things I found on the home page.  You’ll probably find something you like here, and like the website name says, “hey, it’s free”.


buzzillions:

Plenty of sites have reviews.  What we’ve got is reviews on practically everything.  Not just TVs, not just toys and beuaty products.  Everything.  If you can think of it, we’ve probably got a review on it.  I won’t go on and on, but with our Review Snapshot you can see quickly where the product falls within its category, how many stars it has and what the pros and cons are.  Easy.  And, if you’ve got yourself an iPhone, download our app.  That way, when you’re standing blinking at the array of digital cameras at Best Buy, you can check out reviews before you make your decision.



ebates:

I’m always surprised by how many people don’t shop through ebates.  It’s incredibly easy to sign up, there are no fees and you simply need to start at ebates to get your money.  The number of sites they feature gets bigger seemingly every day – Nordstrom, StubHub, Target, Overstock , eBay,  Southwest Airlines – it’s a very long list.  Adding to that is the ebates daily double, when ebates cash back is doubled.  This week, Southwest is offering 5% cash back on bookings when you start at ebates.   The cash back stays in your ebates account and after about 60 days, you can have it sent to your PayPal account, a charity or family member or have it mailed to you.



travelzoo:

I’m completely addicted to travelzoo’s Top 20 that they mail out once a week.  Though I’m terrified of taking three small children on a trip anywhere farther than chuck e. cheese, i have dreams of taking them all over world.  I also have dreams of taking myself all over the world, without them.  Either way, their top 20 list is a quick way of seeing the best, most outrageouysly good deals on flights, hotels etc. in your email box.



myopenbar:

Their tagline says it all:  free booze, open bars and cultural events.  Though My Open Bar is not yet in all cities, they currently list for the following cities:  Los Angeles, Chicago, Honolulu, San Francisco, New York and Miami.   I realize this isn’t helpful to everyone, but I suspect they will widen their reach soon.  If you’re looking for a free event, a gallery open, a sponsored event with a free cocktail or two, this is the place to look first.  While we’re all scaling back on entertainment expenses, it’s encouraging to know you can still have a night out in the city and not spend a ton of money.

Generally when we think of gadgets we tend to think of techie types – certainly parents don’t often come to mind.  But taking a look at the products available to parents out there, it’s clear innovation loves parenthood.  Check out the DiaperBridge – it’s designed to turn any filthy public bathroom sink into clean changing table.  Its about $20.  The DiaperBridge folds up, so it will fit in any diaper bag–and unfolds to fit over most public bathroom sinks.  You can learn the back story on this product and the inventor behind it, in my book, “Gadget Nation: A Journey Through The Eccentric World of Invention” I’ve heard horror stories where mothers have had to spread their coat on the bathroom floor to find a clean spot to change a diaper.  Yuck.  DiaperBridge to the rescue.

Speaking of changing the little one’s diaper, have you seen the Pee-Pee Teepees— I actually found this product on the Buzzillions site.  If you’ve ever changed a little baby boy’s diaper you’ll immediately understand why the PeePee Teepee is a must have.  Baby boys are famous for spraying the person who is changing their diaper.  I have 3-nephews and I’ve experienced this first hand–chest–everywhere.  The PeePee Teepee is a terry cloth cone that you place on the offending body part while the diaper change is underway.  You stay dry and the PeePee Teepee stops the WeeWee.  A package of 5 costs $12.

We all know that being a Mom is a tough job and the folks at VieVu actually put being a Mom on par with law enforcement an the military.  They created a video recorder for law officers and the military that was tough enough to work in those worlds and now VieVu is launching the same video recorder for Mom’s everywhere.  The VieVue Extra-tough Video camera is an almost indestructible camcorder that clips onto anything and has NO buttons to push–just open it and you’re recording.  Perfect for playgroup.  Clip it to stroller, diaper bag, anything.  By the way this company is offering free video recorders by entering a contest “What’s the best Mommy application for VieVu?”  Send your ideas to contest@vievu.com and you could WIN A FREE VieVu video recorder!

When it comes to big ticket items, we all need help so that we don’t waste time and money buying the wrong product–and that’s certainly true of Mom’s everywhere.  Buzzillions.com can be a Mom’s best friend–check out these product face-offs:

Monitor Face-off: Summer Infant vs. Safety 1st

Both seemed like terrific Infant Monitors–both cost around the same price ($150), but real consumers who purchased both products had some strong opinions.

Summer Infant Day & Night Handheld Color Video Monitor 1.8″ Screen
Came in the top 1% on Buzzillions.com.  Consumers loved it.  It ’s small, lightweight size and  1.8″ color LCD screen did the trick.  Other features include 900 MHz technology for clarity and 350′ range and night vision so you can see the baby in dark room.  Also it has a rechargeable battery that lasts up to 10 hours.

Safety 1st Sight & Sound Assurance Monitor System did not fare as well.  It showed up in the bottom 10%:.  Many consumers said that it stops working after about a year and a lot of others said that the quality of the screen is very poor, so much so that you often can’t even see the baby.  Other complaints included poor construction and that it was difficult to maintain

Baby Carrier Face-off: BabyBjorn vs. Maclaren

BabyBjörn Synergy Baby Carrier won this face off, showing up in the top 1% of Buzzillions.com
This carrier is the clear winner.  With close to 600 reviews and a near perfect rating, customers can’t say enough about this product.

Maclaren Kate Spade Carrier landed in the bottom 10% on Buzzillons.com. Many of the people reviewing this carrier bought it for the designer name and stylish design but soon realized that looks can be deceiving.  The number one complaint with this carrier is too many straps.

Baby Mobile Face-off: Tiny Love vs. Fisher Price

Tiny Love Symphony-in-Motion Mobile hit the top 1% on Buzzillions.com The winner—it combines 3 different movements and motions, not just the usual circular motion, to captivate and stimulate baby. Several real consumers loved this so much that they went as far as to say that it was the “best product they’d ever bought!”

Fisher Price Fisher-Price Ocean Wonders: Mobile (with Remote Control) sank to the bottom 10% on Buzzillions.com.  Some real consumers said this mobile doesn’t fit their crib, has gears inside that make loud clanking noises.

And people clearly care about sharing their opinion on bras too.  One bra, the Comfort Choice Side-Wire Lace Bra has (currently) 1,339 reviews.  That is not a typo.  Not only do we have tons of bra reviews, but they’re sorted by the type of bra, as well as what type of person you are:  Comfort Oriented, Practical, Conservative or a High End Shopper.

It’s an important reminder to us here at Buzzillions, that while other sites concentrate on a very narrow segment of products, we must continue to provide valuable reviews on all kinds of products, even the ones you might not expect to find.

Top Ten Bras by Category?  I thought you’d never ask.

• Top 10 Underwire Bras
• Top 10 Soft Cup
• Top 10 Sports Bras
• Top 10 Convertible Bras
• Top 10 Nursing Bras

And just because I couldn’t resist, a new use for that bra just sitting in your drawer.  Maybe she should have read reviews first: