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January 18, 2008

Wize – Buy With (More) Confidence

Shopping can be the ultimate let down. If you’re lucky, you might guess correctly and buy a product that performs well, holds up over time and is backed by great customer service. Then again, you might not.

Wize provides a wealth of product information, user reviews, and comparison pricing all in a single location. Like many similar sites, Wize aggregates customer ratings and reviews from a variety of sites such as Amazon.com and presents the information in a uniform 0-100 color-coded rating system making it easy to spot potential winners. Wize also applies several calculations to make the ratings more valid such as weighting “expert reviews” a bit higher than feedback from average folks.

(Scroll down for screen shots)

Practical Uses:

  • Purchase a riding lawn mower that actually cuts grass
  • Ferret out customer service issues with a particular brand or company
  • Find the lowest price on a Nintendo Wii for “the kids”
  • Ask and find answers to specific product questions

Insider Tips:

  • Be sure to read the actual comments from other users (including negative reviews) to get the whole picture
  • Use the filters to narrow your search criteria

What We Liked:

  • Comprehensive product database (over 75k products as of 1/08)
  • Good range of content sources for reviews
  • Reasonably reliable rating system (product manufacturers cannot pay to improve rankings)
  • Great user interface, filtering system, and color-coded ratings

What We Didn’t Like:

  • Products with minimal reviews can get ranked incorrectly
  • Little to no product descriptions, just photos

Alternatives:

Company Info:

  • Launched in: September, 2006
  • Privately Held
  • Headquarters: Minneapolis, MN
  • Founders: Doug Baker
  • Web site: http://www.wize.com

Costs:

  • Free (supported by advertising)

Rating:

  • 4 out of 5 (superb)

Wize Home Page

Wize Product Comparisons

Wize Product Details

Wize User Forum
Wize Complete Category Listing

Comments

  1. Cool

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