I love user reviews of online products (and here are some of my faves)
I'm celebrating the wild joy and unexpected insights from user reviews that enrich our online shopping experience.
I’m addicted to user reviews of things.
It started many years ago when I was first starting to buy things off Amazon and needed reassurance that the electronic gadget I was planning to purchase would definitely improve my life. I clung to the opinions of random strangers for validation, basking in the glow of their five star rating as my confidence bloomed like a tea bag in hot water. Thank you, generous stranger.
Next, the advent of photo reviews arrived: suddenly you could see for yourself that the awesome-looking Tolkien-themed bookend you were contemplating buying was actually a piece of 3D-printed trash:
I also became enamoured with the Q&A feature that Amazon offers. I think sometimes these things get pushed into the email inboxes of people who purchased the product, prompting them to submit nervous “answers” to questions like “Does this come with a 9v battery?” or “Is this compatible with a 32mm hose?” which are completely unhelpful – often apologetically so. But you also get gems like this:
So I’ve found myself coming to rely on product reviews not only for their honest assessment of the Object of Desire that I’m considering purchasing, but also for the unexpected moments of amusement, confusion or just plain-ol’ serendipity they offer.
There are some people who use the product review area to share personal stories, or just images they feel would be better shared with a wider audience:
And who could forget this review I saw of, er, an electric piano:
It’s silly, but I love it. The internet was founded on this kind of stuff: communication, sharing moments, rich media and user engagement. And it also feels like a slightly transgressive bending of the corporate platforms of Big Tech into something vaguely anarchic and chaotic: why is there a photo of someone’s shoe on the Yamaha product portal? Who knows, but I’m glad it’s there.
Several years ago I was on holiday in Iceland and had landed at Keflavík airport, 50km from Reykjavík where we were headed. Everybody boarded a coach from the airport and we settled in for the ride, taking in the icy spectacle of the country in January and marvelling as the scenery unfolded.
Soon, though, we passed an enormous industrial building, seemingly without branding or signage. I took a look at it curiously from the coach window, then returned to my book again.
Minutes later I looked up again and the building was still there. How long was this thing?! Had I entered a simulation?
I goggled as the building continued to unfurl along the featureless road, and as soon as I regained internet access, I desperately googled to find out what it was. It turns out it was the Rio Tinto Straumsvik aluminum smelter. And hundreds of other tourists like me had shared the same thought, and left incredible reviews of it on Google Maps.
I couldn’t resist leaving my own:
So I dedicate this week’s newsletter to all the people who leave a review. Whether it’s to slate a service worker for a perceived slight at a mid-market restaurant, to complain about the actions of a delivery man in an otherwise-unrelated review of a bluetooth headset, or to share a random item from their camera roll when allegedly contributing their thoughts on the hockey stick they just bought, these people are giving us gifts and delight. I salute them all.
Mini-feels this week
Money, it’s a gas
My last real paycheque was in December – I got my redundancy money a month after that, but in terms of being paid for an honest month’s labour, you have to go back to 2024.
I’ve been at my new job now for a month, and today is payday. It’s a magical thing to see cash appear in your account when you haven’t had it for a while, and has finally broken the spell of the “new job” for me that still feels like it could all disappear and isn’t really real. Look, someone had given me cold, hard cash for doing work! I must be adding value!
So yeah, it’s nice to embrace being fiscally fluid once more: although I suspect I’ve been under-taxed (thanks, HMRC, if you’re reading this) so next month’s pay will probably be a whole other whirlwind of emotion. You win some…