The trouble with searching Google for ‘the best’
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Shoppers often hit Google to search things like “top vacuums" or “best dishwashers," expecting fair, independent assessments of top models. Instead, they might land on marketing pages disguised as expert rankings.
Some firms buy Google ads to promote these “ratings" sites as a quick way to steer customers to pricey off-brand products and potential rip-offs. How do I know? My dad fell for it—almost. This Thanksgiving, my parents visited from North Carolina and—in what was surely a commentary on the state of my New York City apartment—my dad proposed buying me a new vacuum for Christmas.
He suggested one called the V70 on Snapbuy.us, on sale for $260. “It’s ranked the No. 1 vacuum," he told me.
He pointed me to the listing, which featured snazzy product shots and stellar reviews. Fortunately, I’m an investigative reporter. I already knew that fake product reviews were a dime a dozen, but this seemed to go further.
Now that anyone can use artificial intelligence to write convincing marketing and construct sharp-looking websites, the spin has become harder to spot. Harder, yes, but not impossible. Using my dad’s shopping expedition as a case study, I created this list of how you can avoid falling for fake reviews and iffy products.
I searched Google for “top cordless vacuum 2024." Among the top sponsored links—technically ads—was one for product-reports.org, which my dad had also stumbled upon. When you click on the three dots next to the link, Google shows that the sponsor was a company called Internet Up GmbH. (We’ll come back to them.) Melanie McGovern, director of public relations at the International Association of Better Business Bureaus, says people should be wary of sponsored
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