The web is filled with countless editorial and user reviews on nearly every consumer product you can find in retail stores. But sifting through this wealth of information is a chore, and it’s never clear which reviewers actually know what they’re talking about. Bestcovery, a new startup launching today, is looking to eliminate these hassles by offering an at-a-glance guide to finding the best item in many popular consumer product categories. The site was founded by Kamran Pourzanjani, co-founder and former CEO of PriceGrabber.com, which was sold to Experian for $500 million.
Bestcovery currently offers brief product reviews on categories including home appliances, health and beauty, and consumer electronics like televisions and video games. But unlike most review sites, which assign vague Pros and Cons and leave the consumer to make the final decision, Bestcovery labels one product as “the best”. The top product in each category is chosen by a Bestcovery ‘expert’, and is prominently featured on the page alongside a brief description. Towards the bottom of the page, a handful of runners-up are listed. Each product description also includes links to online stores that carry the item, but Bestcovery doesn’t sell anything itself.
All Bestcovery reviews and analysis is performed by a team of in-house editors as well as external ‘experts’, who lend their information to the site for free. The site hopes to cut back on possible bias by allowing users to submit suggestions if they feel the wrong product has been chosen as “the best”, but editors have ultimate control over who gets the top billing.
For major purchases like computers or TV sets, I would be hesitant to use Bestcovery as my only source of information – there is simply too much room for bias, and personal taste plays a big role in these purchases. But for smaller items that I know nothing about, like electric razors, I would readily turn to Bestcovery to make a choice for me. That said, the site is going to have a long road ahead. There are countless well established review sites, and while other sites may not always label a product as “the best”, they generally have a list of the most popular or top rated items, which can be similarly interpreted.
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