Product Reviews vs Editorials
Mar 14 '00
This editorial is in response to an editorial titled "Editorials and Product Reviews: Both Help Consumers Make Good Decisions" (http://www.epinions.com/user-review-7679-BA0026-38CA747E-prod2) by frazzledspice.
In that editorial, she argues that both editorials and product reviews have an important role to play in making a buying decision. It is hard to disagree with this.
But maybe, given the range of what can constitute a member editorial, there are some alternate distinctions that need to be made.
Product reviews, by definition are focused on a product and are meant to be reviews of that product, from the perspective of someone who has bought and used that product.
Editorials are the vast wide world of "the rest". There are some epinions (like this one) that have absolutely nothing to do with making purchasing decisions and others (like the ones that frazzledspice mentions), that are essential to deciding what to buy.
Often, deciding what features to look for is the most important part of the buying process. E.g., a substantial portion of doing the research in deciding which DVD player to buy involves making sense of the different options available. Editorials which explain this to the user are some of the most important pieces on the site.
Going forward, it might be useful to have several categories of editorials such as What To Look For When Buying ..., Taking Care of ..., How to shop for ..., and of course, our favorite, Random Musings on ....
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Epinions.com ID:
guha
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Member: Ramanathan Guha
Reviews written: 5
Trusted by: 78 members
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