I'm no stranger to slapping "Reddit" on the end of a Google search about a product to see what the unwashed masses (myself included) think about it. Assuming we're not reading bot comments, it's a great way to get a feel for a product you've not tested yourself. That's traditionally involved trawling various threads yourself, but now 'Reddit Reviews' is launching, which will collect user opinions on products and use them to inform dedicated reviews for them on Reddit's site.

"Today, we are starting to test Reddit Reviews, a new experience that organizes product conversations from across Reddit into dedicated reviews and highlights the most important takeaways from across our communities. With Reddit Reviews, people can now more easily understand what a product is really like and feel confident deciding whether it’s right for them."

AI is involved, of course: "Reddit Reviews uses AI to both organize these conversations where people describe their product experiences, and to surface the nuance, context, and connection to the original conversation."

Once it rolls out to you, you'll be able to search Reddit for reviews or for categories of products, and you'll also be able to navigate to relevant categories and similar products from the review you're looking at. In each review, you'll be shown the ratio of positive, mixed, or negative conversations about the product, as well as peoples' likes and dislikes, and you'll be able to filter in/out what's most relevant to you.

There's another aspect to this, too—a monetary one: "Many reviews also include images, prices, and purchase links where supplied by brand and retailer catalogs."

Source link