
Just buy this one - will_critchlow
http://www.justbuythisone.com/
======
javanix
I personally wouldn't use this for gadget recommendations - I am too picky and
enjoy the research process too much.

However, for buying a toaster or a microwave or something, I can definitely
see this site being useful. Usually I end up going to the store and picking
something out based on the blurbs on the packaging - not exactly a prime
source of impartial data.

~~~
cheald
I think most geeks like the research process. Joe Average, though, just wants
someone to tell him what to buy. I think this site is utterly brilliant -
cashing in on "The Paradox of Choice"
([http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_ch...](http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html))
is a rock-solid idea.

~~~
jjs
Time to make several dozen competing sites! >:)

~~~
RossM
I'll get started on JustUseThisOne.com...

------
blahedo
Cute and useful, but I'm feeling really dumb about the UI---where do I go to
get a "Just buy this one" recommendation for something other than the six
items on the homepage? I can't even find the button I'm supposed to click to
go somewhere else (although I did discover the recyclables). I feel like I've
fallen into a bad flash game, which is unfortunate because I really like the
idea.

------
LiveTheDream
Honest question - how is this different/better than typing <product> into
Amazon and sorting by best rating first?

~~~
vegashacker
I upvoted you cause I like the question, but I guess the answer is that this
site is better because it makes a decision for you. I tried your idea on
Amazon for televisions and sorted by customer rating, but it just felt very
intimidating. The first result was $900, and maybe that's more than I want to
spend. So I start scanning down the list, and all of a sudden I'm doing
something that feels a lot like researching, which is the whole thing I'm
presumably trying to avoid.

Now that said, would this actually be useful to me? For the stuff I care about
(like, say, a computer) I definitely would not use this site. So it's for
stuff I don't care about. Like a kettle. But I'm fine just buying a cheap-ass
old school kettle that you don't plug in. So it's probably ultimately not for
me. _Super_ clever though!

------
jim_h
If you haven't tried, you can drag the items on the bottom into the recycle
machine. Kind of cute.

btw, <http://www.justbuythisone.com/best-high-end-tv> broke the website.

~~~
reevookat
Cheers for the heads-up - working on fixing that page right now.

~~~
photon_off
While you're at it, you might want to consider having the ReeVoo logo on the
bottom left link to ReeVoo.com.

------
edkennedy
Samsung? Really? It says they have reviewed over 54,844 reviews for their
choice of digital camera. But are these reviews credible? Are they autoforms
filled by bots? No distinction on the quality of review...merely the quantity.

~~~
timcederman
Couldn't agree more. Check out the reviews of the top compact digital camera.
Terrible.

[http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-HZ30W-Digital-compact-
supporte...](http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-HZ30W-Digital-compact-
supported/product-
reviews/B0036RFEM8/ref=cm_cr_dp_hist_2?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&filterBy=addTwoStar)

~~~
will_critchlow
Are we being served different recommendations? The Samsung I see recommended
is the WB600: [http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/digital-
cameras/278734/samsun...](http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/digital-
cameras/278734/samsung-wb600)

(This is the mid-level recommendation - the top price recommendation is the
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3).

I'm not a camera guy so I can't vouch for the quality of these cameras, but
I'm not seeing the one you linked to.

~~~
timcederman
WB600 has a different model number in the US.

------
pshc
Nice work on the title, it's done purely in CSS. Also the source contains
numerous references to JFBI. Original product name? ;)

~~~
reevookat
Yep, that's the original name, which still survives here:
www.justfuckingbuyit.com

------
noonespecial
Will this finally stop family members from using _me_ as this service? I do
hope so. Just because I'm "good at all that computer stuff" does not mean I
automatically know which TV is best for you.

~~~
jrockway
I feel the opposite way. A year or so ago, I went with my Mom to Fry's to buy
a big TV. I looked around and told her what to get. She ignored me and
listened to the salesperson. Now she has a no-name TV that cost more than the
Samsung we were going to get. It irritates me to this day.

------
tsbaron
I would never purchase something like a TV or a laptop without thoroughly
investigating it first. Could maybe be useful if you're looking to get a gift
and are crunched for time. There should be a way to access the reviews though.

~~~
tolmasky
Precisely my thoughts. I want this service for stuff that doesn't matter that
much to me but I can accidentally spend too much time researching (easy to do
on the internet). Tell me what umbrella to buy, kitchen supplies, etc.

Of course the obvious counter argument is that what's not important to me is
to someone else. So of course what this site really needs is just much more
coverage.

------
powrtoch
This is certainly where I'll send anyone who asks "where can I find a DVD
player that looks like a panini maker?".

------
paulgerhardt
The best mid-range kettle (Breville JK144) has a higher average review than
the best high-end kettle (Dualit Axis 72501)

Considering how much tea I drink, I would have been most disappointed to
discover price doesn't always correlate perfectly with quality ;-D

Otherwise I like the site; it fulfills that "family member asking for advice
on electronics" niche well.

~~~
bloch
The Breville gets horrible reviews on amazon.co.uk:
[http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-
reviews/B000OLG5UE/ref=dp_to...](http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-
reviews/B000OLG5UE/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1)

Not reasuring re. justbuythisone.com

~~~
wanderr
There's a huge problem with user generated reviews in general that makes it
very hard to go by top rating. Some peple will give 5 stars to a mediocre
product, some will give 2 stars for a perfect product just because they wish
it was something else (example: the # of people complaining that the Breville
is made of plastic, at least the us verson gets that complaint a lot). At the
last office I worked at we had the Breville kettle for a few years. Everyone
in the office drank tea, so it was in use nonstop. It lated longer there than
I did. I'd say it performed admirably, and if I was going to buy a plastic
kettle in that range, I'd buy that one. I'd rather not be boiling water in a
plastic container, but I'm not going to reduce the rating for it,
unfortunately many other people will, so stars don't necessicarily have a
strong correlation to quality/durability.

------
pragmatic
Is there a US version of the site?

~~~
teej
I recommend Kallow (<http://www.kallow.com/>). I've made 5 purchase decisions
based on it. I was very happy with all but one and they've since stopped
recommending it.

------
Aegean
Everyone's best is different. The best laptop for me is a well configured
Lenovo T500. Far from what's advertised.

~~~
saratogacx
Well configured doesn't mesh into a "just buy that one" mindset. As others
have stated. If you are picky about a product this isn't the service for you
but if you just need something of X where X is a microwave or toaster, you
normally just one one that works well.

------
slater
Except if you're that small minority of people not currently in the UK ;)

~~~
threedaymonk
You should see what the _whole internet_ looks like to those of us not in the
US :-)

------
DanHulton
I was genuinely curious about the laptop.

But their high-end recommendation was a Macbook.

I suppose it makes sense that they're targeting people who aren't picky and
are just looking to buy something they won't regret in that category, but
there's a HUGE gulf to me between buying a Dell with Windows 7 and a Macbook
running OSX.

~~~
irons
More to the point, they define high-end as "over £500". The site isn't aimed
at us.

------
mmaunder
I kept confusing it with justbythis.com which gives a blank page. Awesome
site!! Probably going to buy the compact digital you recommended - but at
Costco, not amazon. You might consider rounding up sponsors without losing
your organic/objective data to solve the Costco-guy problem.

~~~
will_critchlow
It's not my site (unfortunately) but I know the team - I've pinged them about
the various feedback emerging on this thread.

------
nhebb
Shouldn't the title read "£gadget"?

 _[edit: I noticed the title has been changed, so the point is moot now.]_

------
ShabbyDoo
I'm surprised that no one has yet compared this to hunch.com. While Hunch is
kind of an arbitrary question platform, it seems especially suited to product
selection.

<http://hunch.com/netbooks/>

------
zugumzug
I'm torn between loving the brutal simplicity and wanting them to add more
products. I'm guessing if it's successful there's no way they don't add more
products/categories.

~~~
ScottBurson
Right. Then you have to decide what category you're interested in. Starts
being research again...

------
mikeryan
Is this spam?

~~~
will_critchlow
Hi Mike. I hope not... I'm a real person. I used this site last week to buy a
TV (the entry-level one) and loved it. I have started using it when non-
technical people ask me which (TV|netbook|etc) to buy because it's pretty, and
you know they aren't going to go that far wrong. If they don't like the one
they get: <http://www.justbuythisone.com/what-is-roomservice> \- which is
better than my friends normally get from me!

I did find out about it because we work with the guys who built it
(<http://www.reevoo.com>) but I thought the HN crew would enjoy it - it feels
to me like a hardware version of this classic XKCD: <http://xkcd.com/627/>

------
bobf
Great concept, but are they getting the best price on the best one? Buying the
best <X> is good, buying it at the best possible price is better.

~~~
reevookat
Heya, I work at Reevoo and helped build JustBuyThisOne.

We pick the price we show from Reevoo's price comparison, choosing the
cheapest price from the 400 shops we list prices from - so we're pretty
confident we're showing the best product at the best possible price. I'd love
to know if we're missing somewhere with dirt-cheap prices, though.

One caveat is that we don't use Amazon Used&New prices for JBTO, just cause
things tend to be sold in very low quantity there and so go out of stock
really quickly.

------
raquo
When I saw the domain name, I thought it was about you giving it a couple e.g.
laptops (that someone probably recommended you) and the site would compare
them them automatically and tell you in plain english how they stack up.

For this, you'd probably need a huge database of product properties (let alone
products), but that's conceivable. See, for example,
[http://market.yandex.ru/guru.xml?CMD=-RR=9,0,0,0-PF=21425576...](http://market.yandex.ru/guru.xml?CMD=-RR=9,0,0,0-PF=2142557691%2BTR%2Bsel%2Bselect-
PF=2141345289%2BTR%2Bsel%2Bselect-VIS=160-CAT_ID=108206-EXC=1-PG=10&hid=90639)
– these are all TV models with WiFi and 3D support that Yandex knows about
(see there are a lot of filtering options on the right)

Anyone would like to implement such a service?

------
wanderr
I like this and wish they had a US version. Their no-cost no-hassle return
system makes me a lot more inclined to just trust their recommendations even
if the review systems they are built on top of are somewhat flawed. If you
don't like it, no big deal.

------
phugoid
I _love_ the design. I noticed that the font for "Just buy this one" inside
the orange badge is aliasing, both on the main page and when it appears
smaller on other pages. I find it detracts from the shear prettiness of the
pages.

Edit: I'm using IE8 on WinXP.

~~~
threedaymonk
> I'm using IE8 on WinXP

I don't know how to answer this without being harsh, but, what else did you
expect? I mean, Windows XP is hardly the typophile's platform of choice, is
it?

~~~
phugoid
Fine, but who are they designing for here? A sizable fraction of their
visitors will be using IE, so it has to look great in IE.

It's fine to be harsh if you're being logical.

~~~
threedaymonk
My point is that people using Windows XP must be used to ugly type, because
type in general looks ugly on Windows XP, so it's not worth worrying about.
The only solution is to render everything as images, or use Flash, or
something equally horrible. Why bother if ugly type is par for the course?

~~~
phugoid
Why? For the same reason that people cut flowers and put them in a vase in the
middle of the table. Or that people shine their shoes, wash their cars, cut
the lawn, trim their hair. Hint: it's not because they have to.

You don't have to render _everything_ as an image or flash to get the most
eye-catching element on your landing page to look perfect.

------
billybob
I'm a bit obsessive about researching things I buy, so the idea of just
picking something seems like a relief. Then again, having had gadgets with one
flaw that annoyed the crap out of me, I'm driven back to research. (For
example, a DVD player that suddenly decided that 1) a parental controls limit
had been set and needed a password to override (0000 worked fine), and 2)
EVERY movie was above that limit, including Lady and the Tramp, which is a
children's movie from the 50s for goodness' sake.)

------
eof
Yo eof, I hear you're some sort of technology guy.. I really need advice on
which toaster to buy, what do you think? Oh I think toasters are overrated,
what about a kettle?

~~~
akozlik
The kettle makes sense because of all the tea drinking.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
I must say I was shocked when I learnt that people in the USA don't generally
have kettles (or was I misled?).

~~~
Avshalom
It's hard to say. Kettles certainly aren't an expect kitchen appliance/item
like a drip brew coffee maker. Though at the same time I don't think I've ever
been in a home owned by some one over 30 that didn't have a kettle some where
in the house.

------
nileshk
Personally, I wouldn't use the TV recommendations as I generally recommend
getting a plasma rather than LCD unless you absolutely need a TV smaller than
42", are concerned about power usage more than picture quality, have direct
sunlight hitting the screen for a large portion of the day, or are going to
use the display a mostly still image 24/7 (e.g. airport flight schedule).

Otherwise, the picture quality of plasma TVs are dramatically better than
LCDs.

~~~
thenduks
Interesting. I've always avoided them because of burn in -- it doesn't happen
all that often but occasionally a friend comes over or something and leaves
rock band or a dvd at the title screen as we're going out somewhere and I
don't notice. Basically it's the thing where you go into best buy and all
their plasmas have burned pictures in them because... well, people are dumb
_and_ mistakes happen. Thoughts?

~~~
nileshk
I, too, went the LCD route initially because I thought the burn-in issue was
important enough to go that route, but ended up exchanging the LED-LCD I
bought for a plasma and was much happier.

I have my plasma TV set to automatically shut off after 3 hours of inactivity.
Also, I have the "pixel orbiter" feature turned on which periodically slightly
shifts the picture around (not noticeable to the human eye when it happens).

From what I have heard (in places like avsforums and elsewhere), newer plasma
TVs are much harder to permanently burn, especially after the initial break-in
period; it is pretty much a thing of the past. You'd really have to try really
hard to make it happen (leave it on a still image for more than several days),
and I think an auto-shutoff of 3 hrs will prevent that. I don't have any
scientific data to prove this, though.

I haven't been a long-term owner of a plasma TV yet (bought my first HDTV set
about a year ago), so I'm not a good data point, but in that year I have not
experienced any such problems and we leave things paused or on menus all the
time. I expect that some day my plasma display will show signs of age.
Supposedly, the green phosphors tend to age faster than the blue and red,
which will cause a shift in color. But that could be 10 to 20 years from now.
And LCD is not immune to aging; the 9-year-old LCD monitor I am using right
now has had uneven brightness all over the screen in weird blotches for the
last several years. I assume its a backlighting problem; but it doesn't bother
me as I've adjusted to it and I continue to use it. If my plasma ever develops
burn-in, I'll probably adjust to it in the same way.

The difference between LCD and plasma for me is this: with LCD I find myself
noticing all the artifacts -- the colors being unrealistic, the motion blurs,
the flashlight effect (backlighting being noticeable on dark scenes), etc.
Processing like judder correction and blur correction just makes things worse
because it makes film look like it was shot with a video camera. LED-LCD TVs
are especially bad (I owned an edge-lit one for a few weeks before returning
it), because the colors are even more unrealistic than with CCFL-backlit,
though maybe the newer tri-color ones are better.

Whereas, with a good plasma TV I can just watch the content because there are
no artifacts and deficiencies that I can see. The colors are closer to what
you can expect from a CRT. Also, plasma displays seem to smooth out
pixelation; I can watch video that is very low resolution and it looks great
fullscreen on the plasma while it doesn't look good fullscreen either on my
LCD or CRT computer monitors. I guess you can say that plasma is slightly less
sharp, but this works out in its favor.

One of the big differences is: with plasma each pixel is actually producing
its own light, whereas with LCD you have backlights shining through the pixels
which is why LCDs are not even. Also, plasma looks the same from all angles,
whereas with LCD you generally have to be center (vertically and horizontally)
for the best picture, though some LCD TVs pull this off better than others.
Side note: OLED displays also have each pixel producing its own light.

Maybe I am really picky (I didn't realize how picky I was until I started
shopping for HDTVs last year) and the typically consumer wouldn't be as
concerned and only videophiles care enough about the difference. But I think
coupled with the fact that plasma TVs are generally cheaper than LCD TVs for
equivalent quality and sizes, and the fact that I think with the more
expensive LCD TVs you are paying for tech that is compensating for the
inherent defficiencies with the technology (e.g. local dimming to make up for
the lower static contrast ratio), I think plasma is the better buy for even
the typical consumer.

I think the slight risks of possible plasma burn-in in the distant future are
way too small to choose what I think is the less suitable technology for
TV/film viewing.

~~~
thenduks
Very interesting, thanks!

If you happen to see this reply -- I have one last question you may have input
on. My friend Google has been of limited use in figuring out the positioning
of plasma when it comes to gaming. Not just burn-in (HUD's and such) but also
ghosting. Comments? :)

------
edrogers
As someone considered to be the digerati of my family, I'm very excited to see
a website to which I can direct my uncle this Thanksgiving. Great domain name,
too.

------
kenjackson
There's a site called Consumer Search (<http://www.consumersearch.com/>),
which is similar, but IMO superior. It aggregates reviews from different
sites, including user reviews, giving them various amounts of weight based on
their apparent credibility and thoroughness.

Another plus is that it covers a lot of products, and gives a pretty
comprehensive overview of their findings.

------
MikeCapone
You can drag the objects in the recycling machine at the bottom, and then it
gives you information about how to recycle your old stuff. Nice touch!

------
raheemm
This is a great idea! So many people just know they want a good
camera/laptop/etc but dont know or want to research the various options.

------
jrbbl
Seems to be a nice service, but on the downsize may turn into a sensationalist
type of site such as any of those offers of the day sites, which is not bad at
all but may require heaps of cash in order to purchase hellofatrafficstream in
order to get people to commit and reduce their boune rate.. just watch that
and be aware of what the market tells you to do..

------
natch
Samsung as the best choice in compact digital cameras? I'm torn between
thinking this is an instant loss of credibility for the site, and thinking
maybe I should take a closer look at that Samsung model. But leaning just a
bit toward the former. This kind of reaction from users could be an ongoing
challenge for them.

------
keane
The site reminds me of designer Justin Ouellette's <http://theshittoget.com/>
(combined with aggregated and calculated Amazon/Epinions etc.)

Personally I find Justin's site more captivating and would be more likely to
trust his judgment than the masses.

------
prawn
Had a similar idea a while back, but mine was for the best, cheapest product
in a category. Nearly every category has that gem where you'll save a lot of
money without sacrificing too much on performance. Was going to call it
something like BestCheap. Thoughts?

------
mynameishere
Who is upmodding this and why?

------
initself
Ugh: HP Pavilion DV6-2020SA

------
dgant
Nice take on "working around the human aversion to choice overload"

------
Tichy
Good idea, and I have seen something similar before. It would be great if it
really were the best gadgets of their class, though...

------
davidedicillo
It reminds me a lot of <http://kallow.com>

------
lysium
As if everybody has the same preferences...

I don't want to be an average guy. ;-)

------
Murkin
Why would you trust such a site ?

If they become even moderately successful, I will always be worried that the
big brands / local importers - just bought the top slots and the site is
nothing more than a marketing tool.

But maybe its me being cynical

------
gxs
This page renders horribly on my evo.

------
bullrunbear
awesome!

------
pitdesi
The suggested Kettle has 11 1-star ratings on Amazon out of 28 reviews... I
don't think it's "The best fucking kettle" Apparently it only lasts a few
months.

------
sabat
Clever.

