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-Matthew TW Huang and Celestial Seasonings Sleepy Time Bear
As I watch commercials, they are random people giving positive comments about a certain product or service. Personally, I can't even remember the things being advertised nor does it make me want to purchase such things. Why would I trust reviews from strangers (who I assume aren't experts), especially when the advertisement state "results are not typical" in small, almost camouflage, font on the bottom of the screen.
There are tons of sources for reviews for things like electronics, appliances, cars, and other costly products. There are plenty of reputable reviewers for such products too. For restaurants, they are sites like Yelp, Google places, and UrbanSpoon, where customers can review the place freely. For everyday products like wallets, light bulb, tape, mechanical pencils, and cheese graters, you have Consumer Reports and Amazon.
It is great when products have experts reviewing the quality and value but for those things like restaurants, there is really no great source for a overall feel for the food. You can argue that there is Zagat which has just been integrated with Google+ (WOOT!). But these reviews can be outdated or reviews have never been made at all. With sites where there are user reviews, they are mostly negative reviews especially on Google Places. On rare occasions, they are too positive though (Cough**Chi-talian**Cough). And with places like Amazon, the user base is large enough where the reviews are pretty accurate for popular products.
There MUST be a way to make it easier to review products/places/services. Like a service that connects to online shopping sites, check-in services, and integrates multiple review sites. It's very inconvenient to review while using the product or checking email for other reasons. It would be great to have a service to store a list of items (From my check-ins and items bought online) I have yet to review so I could do it on my own time.