SolidBest:About
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SolidBest.com
Rock Solid Resources And Recommendations
You Can Count On Being The Best!
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What Makes SolidBest.com Different?
Save time, money and frustration by making this your first source for unbiased accurate recommendations on the best technology products in each category.
SolidBest.com gets right to the point by recommending only one best product or service in each category. You don't have to spend a lot of time wading through multiple reviews of different products that all claim to do the same thing!
The Problem...
Other sites, even the largest, often offer reviews and recommendations worded so as not to offend major advertisers (a big source of revenue). While great for the makers of the products, this isn't a good thing for you, the prospective user/buyer.
Go ahead, check any major computer or technology magazine or review site for yourself.
Most sites offer some way of distinguishing one product as better than another. The most popular term is probably, "Editors' Choice."
The problem is that negative aspects of products are often carefully and diplomatically glossed over using "nice" words that still make each product look good, especially if its maker happens to be a major advertiser. Reviewers often tiptoe and dance around because they don’t want to risk offending the manufacturer of any given product.
By the time you finish reading that kind of review you often still don't know which product is really, "best."
Here is an actual example adapted from one of the Internet’s popular information and review sites. The words have been changed slightly and the product names have been replaced with generic names. A consumer emailed in his question, and an expert is answering his question. See for yourself if after reading this kind of review and recommendation (which is pretty typical of what you’ll find everywhere) you are any clearer on which product is better than you were to begin with?
CONSUMER: I want to buy a GAGDET, mainly for appointments, calendar, and contacts info. I'm on a budget, so I'm looking into GAGDET A or the GAGDET B. They are similar in price ($299), but I don't know which I should choose. Any suggestions? EXPERT'S ANSWER: Great question. Ultimately though, it boils down to the GAGDET A versus GAGDET B debate. But first things first, if you're a Mac person, there's no question about it: SYSTEM B based GAGDETs aren't Mac compatible, so it's a no-brainer to go with GAGDET A. If you use a Windows-based machine, you can use either. While SYSTEM A based GAGDETs tend to be easier for people to acclimate to, if you prefer the Windows look and feel, you'll no doubt be more comfortable with GAGDET B. Furthermore, at the low end, equipment tends to be more similar than dissimilar. That said, in your case, I'm leaning toward the SYSTEM A device. While we like SYSTEM B's X series GAGDET Bs, we prefer the higher-end SYSTEM Bs over the lower-end versions; the SYSTEM A's Z-Series model line is pretty solid from top to bottom.
Opinion, Voting, And Rating Sites
Numerous Websites sprung up designed to let end users, the actual customers who buy technology products, rate those products and post comments, reviews, etc. Now almost everyone has joined in on this concept and most major online retailers, magazines, download sites, etc., offer a way for people who've used the various products to make their feelings known.
However, there are more problems with such ratings and reviews than you might realize.
For one thing, almost anyone can rate a product or leave comments. There is no way to verify that the person is a legitimate user, versus someone intentionally trying to make a particular product look better, or worse.
Here's a classic example:
In November 1999, http://www.slashdot.com sponsored a Web-based online poll asking which was the best graduate school in computer science. Despite the fact that the IP addresses of voters were recorded in order to prevent the same users from voting more than once, students at Carnegie Mellon found a way to stuff the ballots by writing programs that voted for CMU thousands of times. CMU's ranking quickly took the lead.
The next day students at MIT wrote a ballot stuffing program of their own to do the same thing. MIT finished with an impressive 21,156 votes, and Carnegie Mellon came in second with 21,032. Interestingly, no other school, where real people were the ones who actually submitted real votes, ended up with more than 1,000 votes!
Other Problems...
Even if someone leaving a vote or comment on a site is a real, live human being and a legitimate user, that doesn't necessarily mean that his or her opinion or evaluation is accurate.
A less advanced user, for instance, may easily become intimidated or frustrated by an advanced or complex product and give a poor review even though there is nothing wrong with the product at all.
Someone only interested in "cheap" or "free" software might give an excellent product a low rating just because they don't like the price.
An advanced or expert level user might look down his or her nose at a product designed for beginning computer users, even though the product might well be perfect for the novice-level users that it was intended for.
Didn't Read The Instructions!
Lastly, users in all of the above categories from novice to expert to professional reviewer often fall victim to an issue that can impact any review: insufficient time, interest, or expertise to properly familiarize themselves with the product and all necessary updates, documentation, etc.
Sometimes a product will receive a less positive review or a negative rating in a particular area because the reviewer thinks the product is missing a key feature, or doesn't work correctly, etc. Then the manufacturer or a user of the product sees the erroneous information, contacts the publication, and a correction is made after the fact.
In the meantime another product that wasn't really the best might have already been assigned the top rating or Editors' Choice, because it was incorrectly thought that a competing product didn't work correctly or had lesser features.
SolidBest.com is different because I use the same Exhaustive Research (http://www.grpmax.com/services/index.htm#Exhaustive) techniques learned and developed over a career that spans the entire PC and modern computing era. The same unique techniques that Fortune 500 clients pay me $300/hr and more for in order to have me research and review their technology options are available to you here. Except that you don't have to pay to benefit from the information provided on here on SolidBest.com.
Phil's Best is also different because in most cases each product hasn't just been tested on a one-time basis for review purposes only, but has been used day in and day out on a personal, corporate, or client basis, allowing for up-close and in-depth analysis of the product's true Real World performance.
Just click, read, and quickly find the product that is best suited for your needs in each technology category!
Thank you for stopping by!
Phil Covington
Founder, SolidBest.com