Reviews

Internet reviews are great. I've been online shopping for a camera and an lcd monitor. I read reviews for the product, and then reviews of the person selling the product. I've even started getting review crazy about books and shampoo and random everyday items. I take more stock in what the random site visitors say than what critics say, though. Is that strange? I'd think that critics' opinions would be worth more, but it's the fact that user reviews would be context dependent, and more likely to be in the context in which I will be using the product.

I was extremely intrigued by one story in Blink, by Malcom Gillis, where he talks about the "Pepsi Challenge". Pepsi advertised that in blinded taste-tests, a significant percentage of people would choose Pepsi over Coke. Now, Coke was not very happy about this, and held their own trials... and found that it was true! Then they became very concerned that they were going to lose to the competition and revamped their product until it came out on top in blind taste tests. When the new product went on the market though, consumers hated it. Why? Well, no one ever really drinks their soda blind! And no one really takes just a sip! So a good-tasting sip may actually mean a sickeningly sweet whole can, and a visible label about the new ingredients detracts from the established goodness of the well-known coke. From the strong negative reaction of their consumers, Coke changed their product back to the original. They still dominate the softdrink market, irrelevant of the findings of the Pepsi Challenge.

I saw an ad on tv today by pepsi with the slogan that "Diet Pepsi has more Cola flavor." I wonder what coke will do now...

In line with my usual "intensity" or "nerdiness", I also wanted to remark that I am also on the search for a lab for my first research rotation (where we try out a lab for a couple of weeks to see if we want to stay there for the next several years). Unfortunately, user reviews are much harder to come by and I must seek them out myself. But in the end, I will be doing much of the reviewing. It's a scary prospect, one of those things you feel like determines the rest of your life but probably doesn't actually have that much weight. My reviewers are pubmed, former graduate students, and current lab members. Unfortunately, they will not be within exactly the right context as projects change, the lab dynamics change, and since I am one unique "user" in the system. I wish this were easier..