and the Most For Your Money winners are…

It’s been a tough year economically and everyone is watching their spending.  With the holidays right around the corner, it’s going to be even harder than ever.  That’s why Buzzillions has found the best deals in each category to help you with your holiday shopping.  These aren’t just the cheapest products, because what’s the point of getting a cheap product if it doesn’t do what you want?  These are products where you feel like you are getting far more value than what you paid.  These are products that are highly ranked yet won’t break the bank.  These are the Buzzillions Most For Your Money winners.

The Most For Your Money winners are determined based on user reviews.  To ensure the winners are relevant and not discontinued or out of stock, we only use reviews from January to September 2009.  Products in each category are then ranked with a special algorithm that incorporates star ratings, number of reviews and the reliability of the reviewers (reviews by “Verified Buyers” are given more weight).  A price comparison is performed on the highest ranked products to determine the Most For Your Money winners for each category.

***Note that these awards are NOT influenced by any sponsorship or payments. They are based solely on the product reviews of real consumers and price reported to us by retailers.

You can see all Most For Your Money Award winners here.

When browsing for products, look for the distinctive blue Buzzillions Most For Your Money badge, and you’ll know you’ve found a standout within a category.
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Some Award Highlights

Toys, Baby and Kids:

• Most For Your Money Standard Baby Stroller: Graco Glider Stroller
• Most For Your Money Car Seat: Chicco KeyFit 30 Infant Car Seat & Base
• Most For Your Money Ride-On Toy: Little Tikes Rockin’ Puppy

Sports & Outdoor:

• Most For Your Money Ski/Snowboard Helmet: Giro Bad Lieutenant Helmet
• Most For Your Money Backpack: North Face Terra 60 Backpack – 3700-3850cu in
• Most For Your Money Elliptical: Stamina Products InMotion E1000 Elliptical Trainer

Electronics:

• Most For Your Money MP3 Player: Apple iPod shuffle 1GB
• Most For Your Money Digital Point & Shoot Camera: Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS Digital Camera
• Most For Your Money LCD TV: Samsung LN40A450 40 Inch High Definition LCD TV

Home & Garden

• Most For Your Money Dishwasher: Frigidaire 24″ Tall Tub Built-In Dishwasher – White
• Most For Your Money Washer: Haier 6.6 lbs. Portable Pulsator Washer
• Most For Your Money Coffee Maker: Faberware Stainless Steel 8 Cup Yosemite Percolator

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Congratulations to all the winners. You can see all Most For Your Money winners here.

Two videos for you today.  Video #1 is Gadget Nation’s Steve Greenberg on his Dads and Grads tour – great inspiration for you last minute Father’s Day shoppers.  Video #2 is footage of a rampaging bird in San Francisco’s Financial District.  What do they have in common?  Nothing, except that they are both videos.  All I can say is thank goodness we’re safe in SOMA.

Steve Greenberg on Philly’s NBC 10

Rampaging Bird in San Francisco’s Financial Disctrict

Steve Greenberg of Gadget Nation is hitting the TV show circuit & bringing Buzzillions with him.  He’ll be highlighting the top Fathers Day and graduation gadget gifts of the season.  

Tune in to see him pit the Panasonic Lumix TZ5 against the Nikon CoolPix S630 in a “Buzzillions Review Face-off” for point & shoot digital cameras. 

6/2/2009     Seattle KING NBC       

6/4/2009     San Francisco KGO    View From the Bay     

6/8/2009     Washington DC WUSA CBS    9NewsNow      

6/9/2009     Philly WCAU NBC    The 10! Show     

6/12/2009   New York CW11    Morning News    

6/16/2009   Chicago WGN     

6/18/2009   Houston KHOU CBS    Great Day Houston    

6/20/2009  Miami WPLG ABC

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!