Review Party Recommends: Wirecutter
For everything the internet has brought us, all the convenience of information and shopping a click or tap away, we still have to be mindful of what we’re looking at and where we’re looking. Both in news and in reviews, you want facts, you want information you can trust. You don’t want to be burned.
And if there is one name that is most trusted in this country, it’s The New York Times. And in 2016, the paper expanded its offerings by acquiring The Wirecutter, a review and recommendation website that goes a bit beyond “this worked well, my wife loves it.”
Before we go any further, a caveat- The Wirecutter is adding a paid subscription to its website, and similar to NYTimes.com, with a free account you’ll only be able to access a fixed number of articles each month. I trust you know the internet and know there are ways around these things, but still, it’s an inconvenience.
But what’s more inconvenient is spending time and money trying to find a good product, only to later see a better product available for less, or a slightly pricier product with far better quality.
Now you may not be heading to them for every purchase you make, but if there’s something you don’t buy often, a product you don’t have much experience with, then Wirecutter is your best bet.
How They Work
While some tech sites have articles strictly related to the latest headphones or smart lights, Wirecutter has articles centered on a specific type of product, be it pillows and bedding, cleaning products, or various shovels:
And what you’re seeing there is what sets the Wirecutter apart. Not only do they spend hours doing testing and research with a variety of products, they also have experts on hand to do the testing, and these articles are updated as new products are released, year after year after year.
Try not being impressed by this level of detail:
Purely insane. But if you need to buy a snow shovel, all that is worth reading. And what’s better is that they also list what they don’t recommend, and detail why their recommendations are better, or where the un-recommended fall short, whether it’s quality, price, or a lack of features or effectiveness.
If it’s not obvious, they make money when you click their links to buy the products they recommend (and they also NOW have a subscription), but I suppose that’s their right.
Speaking of rights, this writer has purchased at least a few items after reading Wirecutter’s recommendations (a lunchbox and gaming headphones come to mind), and the results have been exactly as expected, because I knew exactly what to expect.
So heed this: if you’re making a purchase in a category you don’t often shop, check out the Wirecutter. They also have lists for gifting (especially around the holidays). If regular reviews are a good source of information, a bit like a magazine, sometimes filled with fluff, then Wirecutter is like a library, full of facts, stats, and data. It’s stuff you can trust.
