There once was a day when I\u2019d go to a big box store shopping for electronics, cameras, whatever, and look at the boxes, and any posted information, and make a decision without consulting any other sources. Occasionally, I\u2019d talk to a friend or coworker, but more often than not, I shopped alone. There was no \u201cInternet Oracle\u201d that I could consult for thousands of reviews by other people that I don\u2019t know. I wouldn\u2019t spend months looking for a product, trying to decide, as there really wasn\u2019t much information besides what was on the box and what a \u201ccapable\u201d salesperson might be able to offer.<\/p>\n
Now, I\u2019m forced to look through hundreds of billions of web pages, reading and rereading reviews, going over every tiny detail and immediately moving on if someone has a bad review \u2013 even if there are 20 good reviews. Reviewer \u201cButtinski\u201d said it was the worst 2 speed blender and toaster combination!<\/p>\n
Am I happier now<\/strong>, with all of this information?<\/strong> Probably not, unless it\u2019s to just justify my educated purchase with a team of trusted internet co-shoppers.<\/p>\n (Can you tell that I\u2019m shopping for something? Specifically a compact digital camera that fits in my front blue-jean pants pocket comfortably. I had a Canon SD870 which I liked, but the LCD recently developed serious issues \u2013 and I\u2019m looking to see what else is around.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There once was a day when I\u2019d go to a big box store shopping for electronics, cameras, whatever, and look at the boxes, and any posted information, and make a decision without consulting any other sources. Occasionally, I\u2019d talk to a friend or coworker, but more often than not, I shopped alone. There was no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[5,9],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5QIe-cj","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1382,"url":"https:\/\/www.wiredprairie.us\/blog\/index.php\/archives\/1382","url_meta":{"origin":763,"position":0},"title":"Nest Thermostat Review, Update #4","date":"January 2, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Update #6, Update #5, Update #4, Update #3, Update #2, Update #1, Install A bit more about my Nest thermostat experiences. On the weekend, I spoke with a support engineer from Nest regarding the issue I was having with one of the Nest units failing to properly read the room\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wiredprairie.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/image_thumb.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1420,"url":"https:\/\/www.wiredprairie.us\/blog\/index.php\/archives\/1420","url_meta":{"origin":763,"position":1},"title":"Nest Thermostat Review, Update #6","date":"January 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Update #5, Update #4, Update #3, Update #2, Update #1, Install I didn\u2019t expect to have another post so soon. But, the Nest experience continues to frustrate and baffle. On the 3rd of January, I took the following screen shot of our basement schedule for heating: Tonight (one day later\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wiredprairie.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/image_thumb4.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":917,"url":"https:\/\/www.wiredprairie.us\/blog\/index.php\/archives\/917","url_meta":{"origin":763,"position":2},"title":"Tom Bihn Smart Alec Backpack Review","date":"March 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I recently purchased a Tom Bihn Smart Alec Backpack. Tonight, I put it back in its original shipping box and will be shipping it back to Tom Bihn tomorrow. I wanted to review the bag here on my web site to provide some unbiased and alternative opinions to this bag\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Recommendations"","img":{"alt_text":"IMG_0329","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wiredprairie.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/IMG_0329.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1576,"url":"https:\/\/www.wiredprairie.us\/blog\/index.php\/archives\/1576","url_meta":{"origin":763,"position":3},"title":"Nest Thermostat Review, Update #10: Wifi Settings Missing","date":"March 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"One more brief update about our Nest thermostats. After a few weeks of limited use of our HVAC system due to a very unusually warm late winter and early spring, I\u2019d set the whole house to AWAY mode last evening. However, a bit later, I heard the furnace running. Odd.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Recommendations"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1482,"url":"https:\/\/www.wiredprairie.us\/blog\/index.php\/archives\/1482","url_meta":{"origin":763,"position":4},"title":"Nest Thermostat Review, Update #8","date":"January 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Summary\/Index A few new things have occurred since I last posted. January 11, 2012: Nest Labs updated the firmware of the thermostat to version 1.0.6. There isn\u2019t any publically available information about what was updated however other than \u201cbug fixes.\u201d Thanks to GregN for pointing it out. Here\u2019s a link\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","img":{"alt_text":"nestrounding","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wiredprairie.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/nestrounding_thumb.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1508,"url":"https:\/\/www.wiredprairie.us\/blog\/index.php\/archives\/1508","url_meta":{"origin":763,"position":5},"title":"Nest Thermostat Review, Update #9","date":"January 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Summary\/Index When I woke up this morning, I decided that I\u2019d use the remote features of my Nest Thermostat to increase the temperature of the first floor as the normal schedule hadn\u2019t started yet. Here\u2019s what I saw on my iPad: Basement: ? First Floor: ? When I tapped the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","img":{"alt_text":"image","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wiredprairie.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/image23.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wiredprairie.us\/blog\/index.php\/wpjson\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wiredprairie.us\/blog\/index.php\/wpjson\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wiredprairie.us\/blog\/index.php\/wpjson\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wiredprairie.us\/blog\/index.php\/wpjson\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wiredprairie.us\/blog\/index.php\/wpjson\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=763"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wiredprairie.us\/blog\/index.php\/wpjson\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":779,"href":"https:\/\/www.wiredprairie.us\/blog\/index.php\/wpjson\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763\/revisions\/779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wiredprairie.us\/blog\/index.php\/wpjson\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wiredprairie.us\/blog\/index.php\/wpjson\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wiredprairie.us\/blog\/index.php\/wpjson\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}