FAQs About ConsumerSearch

• What is ConsumerSearch?
• How do ConsumerSearch editors select the products in Fast Answers?
• What do you do when the reviewers recommend a product that has been discontinued?
• How do you decide which reviews are most credible?
• How does the rating system in your All The Reviews Reviewed chart work?
• I noticed that you gave a low ranking to a really great article I read. Why?
• I noticed that you gave a review a five rating in one report and a two rating in another. Why?
• You seem to favor professionally prepared reviews over individual consumer reviews. Is that true?
• What makes your editors downgrade a review?
• What is the Consensus Report?
• How can I become involved with ConsumerSearch?
• ConsumerSearch takes advertising. How can you be objective about which products are best?
• Do you get money from the retailers who appear on your site?
• How do you decide which categories to cover?
• How often do you update your reports?
• How to link to ConsumerSearch?

Q. What is ConsumerSearch?

A. ConsumerSearch.com (part of the About.com/New York Times family) is a web-based publishing company that helps site visitors find answers about what products are top-rated or best bets in their class. We try to provide consumers with fast answers on top-rated products and provide an intelligent search engine to the best articles on any given product or service. Our mission is to reduce to minutes the time it takes readers to make an intelligent purchase.

Our process begins when our editors scour the Internet and print publications for comparative reviews and other information sources relevant to the topic. We then analyze these reviews and sources and rank them according to how credible they are, based on specific criteria we have developed for this purpose (see below for more on these criteria).

Our website is partly a search tool (see our All The Reviews Reviewed page) and partly a consolidator of wisdom and analysis (see our Fast Answers and Full Report sections). Use whichever of these tools you find most useful

Q. How do ConsumerSearch editors select the products in Fast Answers?

A. We prepare our Fast Answers by selecting the products that are top-rated by the most credible experts and/or the products about which there is reviewer consensus. Our process and judgments are documented in the Full Story and the All The Reviews Reviewed chart

Q. What do you do when the reviewers recommend a product that has been discontinued?

A. Whenever possible, we note this and provide the number of the replacement model if there is one.

Q. How do you decide which reviews are most credible?

A. We have the most respect for reviews that cover multiple competing products that have been tested to determine which work best. We are very impressed with reviewers that follow a process similar to the one Consumer Reports pioneered. We also listen carefully to a reviewer who has tested many products, and then makes an assertion that the product he is reviewing today beats other products he has reviewed in the past. We are very impressed when reviewers live and breathe the subject matter, and actually use the products they test.

Q. How does the rating system in your All The Reviews Reviewed chart work?

A. Our editors evaluate articles on each of the following criteria (assigning a 1 to 5 rating for each), and then average the result:

1. How up-to-date is the review compared to its peers?

2. How credible are the reviewer's top picks in relation to the top picks of other reviewers?

3. How expert is the reviewer?

4. How extensive and convincing is its methodological approach compared to other reviews?

As part of this evaluation, we consider questions like these: Did the reviewers test the products? Which ones? How many? How did they pick the ones they tested? Does it appear that they tested things that most experts would consider important? Did they test products multiple times? Do they explain their test process? Do they clearly document results? Provide detail? Point out pluses and minuses? Compare products against each other?

Q. I noticed that you gave a low ranking to a really great article I read. Why?

A. ConsumerSearch does not rank reviews based on how well written they are or on how informative they are. Instead, we look for a review's credibility in identifying the best products or services. Many otherwise excellent articles or information sources don't make it into our charts (or don't rank very highly) because they don't make recommendations, or when they do, the recommendations do not indicate how the products stack up against their peers.

Q. I noticed that you gave a review a five rating in one report and a two rating in another. Why?

A. Our ratings of reviews are specific to product category, time and purpose. A review of passenger cars may get a higher rating in our mid-priced sedans report than it gets in our economy cars report if the review covers mid-priced sedans more thoroughly. In other words, our ratings are not an indication of the article's credibility apart from the specific category on which we're reporting.

Q. You seem to favor professionally prepared reviews over individual consumer reviews. Is that true?

A. We have no bias against reviews prepared by individuals. They often have more passion and insight than professionally prepared articles. In practice, however, individuals don't do exhaustive comparison tests as often as professional organizations. For example, CNet.com and Consumer Reports operate huge laboratories staffed with dedicated experts, which makes them hard to beat in terms of credibility. We do read thousands of reviews by individuals, and we attempt to include in our chart all major reviews that compare products. Although we often include in our All The Reviews Reviewed chart websites where consumers vote on which products they consider best, so far there are too many methodological problems with these systems for us to give them a great deal of weight. Among other things, we are concerned about the potential for manipulation by individuals or groups who wish to skew the rating results

Q. What makes your editors downgrade a review?

A. We downgrade reviews if they are out of date, do not critically weigh the pros and cons of the products they are covering, contain logical flaws or emphasize criteria that appear unsophisticated in relation to the work of other experts.

Q. What is the Consensus Report?

A. The Consensus Report is a chart that show whether or not the reviewers agree on which products are best, and to what degree. If a product appears in a Consensus Report, it means that is was top-rated, recommended or picked in at least one of the reviews highlighted in our All The Reviews Reviewed chart. Models with the most picks are the most popular with reviewers.

Q. How can I become involved with ConsumerSearch?

A.See our Jobs page.

Q. ConsumerSearch takes advertising. How can you be objective about which products are best?

A. Our objectivity is built into our core process of reporting what the reviewers say. We make our process transparent to users, who are free to examine our sources. Consumer Reports has popularized the notion that a publisher cannot be objective if it takes advertising. We appreciate this point of view, and there is good reason to be cautious about the influence advertisers can have on publishers. That is one of the reasons we rigorously evaluate reviews.

Q. Do you get money from the retailers who appear on your site?

A. Yes. We do receive money from the reliable retailers with competitive prices that we allow to advertise on our site, and customer feedback on retailers is welcome. ConsumerSearch separates its editorial content from its advertising content. Our editors' work is not linked in any way with financial rewards from retailers.

Q. How do you decide which categories to cover?

A. We cover any product or service category that has been the subject of independent evaluation. There is no theoretical limit to the number of categories we can cover.

Q. How often do you update your reports?

A. There is no set timetable. We update our reports as often as new information comes in. Our goal is to incorporate standout reviews as soon as they are published. If you see something you think should be reflected in one of our reports, let us know.

For more informtion on how ConsumerSearch evaluates reviews, see also our Ratings Criteria discussion.