[sheepolog]

> or you find a trusted friend to advise you

I think there's an opportunity here for a review platform that only shows you reviews from individuals that you personally trust. "Find a trusted friend" but for the internet.

[parpfish]

The problem with reviews from individuals (trusted friends or complete strangers), is that for major purposes they only get to deeply evaluate a single product. So they could tell you if they are happy with the fridge they bought, but they wouldn’t be able to do a detailed comparison between multiple fridges.

This will lead to you getting a product that’s good enough, but there may be a superior quality/value option that you don’t know about

[adamc]

Yeah, but it might be a satisficing approach. Most of us don't really need to optimize an appliance purchase, just not get screwed.

[bee_rider]

Could have been an interesting application for social networking. (Friend of a friend)^n. I’d probably trust most of my friends, and most of their friends, not to be bots. Probably want to see the links, past that.

[groby_b]

That review platform is called "the phone", "hanging in the pub", "having a get-together".

Friendship requires regular contact anyway. We don't need somebody to intermediate that.