Alongside providing great news and reviews in tech and design, I always like to let you in on trippy new sites I think you guys might be interested in. So today I thought I’d show you one I found recently, it’s called TestFreaks, and with the right exposure, I feel it could rival the likes of CNET, ZDNet and Amazon for their review potential. Launched late last year, and a side project of PriceRunner founder Kristofer Arwin, TestFreaks aims to become the biggest product review database on the globe – and it looks like it’s getting pretty close to achieving that. I’d like to get into a bit of detail about this site, as I think it’s emerging, and could in fact become huge …
Still in it’s beta stages, TestFreaks aims to provide in depth, concise information about each product in it’s library, and with 70+ categories to choose from, the site goes pretty deep in itself. The founders are not new to this way of thinking though – Oh no. Test Freaks is another end product of Price Runner founder Kristofer Arwin [Wiki], and close behind Price Runner’s global success, Arwin hopes Test Freaks will become one of (if not the) biggest product review database ever created.
Reaching a staggering 2M unique in traffic for this August just gone, TestFreaks are well on the way to achieving the global status PriceRunner has managed to gain, up until today.
Currently, Test Freaks has a total of 10 main categories, with a further 75 sub categories available to choose from. These categories span a wide spectrum of products, and here are just some what of you’ll find within those 75 categories:
Mobile Phones, Wireless Networks, Game Consoles, GPS & Navigation Devices, TV’s, Car Speakers, Remote Controls, MP3 Players, Digital Photo Frames.
I found that product were mainly reviewed on three factors, including; Design, value for money and it’s features, although not all products were limited to being reviewed on these factors.
In a recent interview, Arwin was asked:
How does Test Freaks differ from other review and comparison sites?
.. and in his reply he noted the weaknesses of most comparison review sites, and with it explained how TestFreaks would aim to provide an all round ‘honest’ outlook on each product it’s current library would house:
“Most comparison sites look the same today, and not much has happened in this space for many years. We think that there is a great opportunity to apply concepts and technology that have taken other sectors on the internet to new levels, into our space. We want to simplify product research.
One thing that sets TestFreaks apart from our competitors is our global perspective. We are currently present in 13 different languages and markets, and gather information from more than 50 different markets. This makes as unique and has a positive impact on many things.
For example; the ‘FreakScore’. If a product is reviewed in Japanese on the Japanese market, that review will be a part of the information cloud from which we calculate the FreakScore on testfreaks.co.uk as well as on testfreaks.com.
This means that the FreakScore is based on more sources, and as a result is more accurate than any other website’s rating for any particular product. We want the FreakScore to be recognised and referenced to as the most relevant, independent and trustworthy rating of a product.”
The site also has numerous features which help you decide your overall opinion of a product, the first and most prominent of these being the FreakScore.
The ‘FreakScore’
TestFreaks awards a FreakScore to a specific product after it has been reviewed. Arwin recently explained how these scores are actually calculated, and how he hopes these scores will become ‘the’ global reference for an honest insight into individual products:
“The FreakScore is calculated with an algorithm that factors things such as how old the product is, when each review was written, and the characteristics of the particular category. It also puts different weight on different sources, e.g if Cnet or DPreview has reviewed a product and rated it 10 out of 10 that will have a big impact on the FreakScore.
If a Russian user review has rated the same product 4 out of 10 that will have less impact on the FreakScore. As we aggregate from 50 countries instead of just the home market, there’s for the ‘Freak’ user also a lot more reviews and information to research. We are also working on a number of projects involving advanced language tools and semantic analysis that will deliver truly comprehensive and accurate information to all our users, no matter what country they are from.”
WikiFreak
Alongside the manufacturers description, WikiFreak serves as TestFreak’s own version of Wikipedia, and although not physically searchable itself, WikiFreak descriptions are available for every product in their library and offer up valuable information as to the likes of; Product features, colour, size, weight, display, audio support, capacity and more. You’ll also find information about what comes ‘out of the box’, it’s release date(s) and how many countries the product was initially launched in.
Of course, being Wikis, you also have to ability to edit change and modify them! – Just sign up or login for/into your TestFreak’s account, and you’ll be on your way.
Freak Rank
This I found was slightly different to the FreakScore. A products FreakRank, as the name suggests is the current ranked position in which the product falls. TestFreak’s recognise what search terms you entered and ‘guesses’ which categories apply most to that certain product. In this case with the iPhone 3G they returned rank results from the categories ‘Apple’, ‘Camera’ and ‘Mobile Phones’. In this case, the iPhone 3G ranked:
“1 of 2 in Apple, 10 of 265 with Camera, 25 of 1200 in Mobile phones.”
Testing TestFreaks for Ourselves
There are two initial sections to the site Popular Products, and Top Rated.
I decided to give TestFreaks a try, with a product we are all familiar. The iPhone 3G [Product page]. Lets first look at the product page offers. So firstly, to reach the product I had two options. I could use the built in site search to search in the term ‘iPhone 3G’ or I could find the product through the categories view. I chose the latter to see how easy searching manually would be. After finding the category ‘Phones’ and then the sub category ‘Mobile Phones’, the iPhone 3G was just a click away.
On the product page I was met with a side bar offering; An Overview, Expert reviews, User reviews, Forum threads, Image gallery, Video gallery, Prices, Manufacturer’s specs, Questions, and this brief (but thorough overview:
At a glance, I was able to see the iPhone 3G had a current FreakScore of 8.7, had 124 expert reviews, 783 user reviews, 0 forum threads had been raised about the product, and the best current price for the product according to the links found by TestFreaks was £364 from Carphone Warehouse [Link].
Below this, TestFreaks also offered up a bunch of other stuff, including; the user’s overall score (in this case 7.5), what the experts thought of it (in this case 8.3) the pro’s and con’s of the product, links to the lowest current prices on the market, and finally, it’s ‘Freak Rank’.
With things going so well I decided to compare two products which should never be compared to each other (but it was good that I could) – the iPhone Classic, and iPhone 3G – and I have to say, it did the job well. From the comparison chart [seen here] I was able to conclude the iPhone 3G is slightly lighter than it’s predecessor, but also slightly wider and deeper.
I was also able to see the overall opinion of both devices side-by-side, with their Freak Grade.
To the left, I was (like other review sites) able to see related products, and products which people that had viewed the current product I was viewing, had viewed previously. – *breathe*. In the top right, I was able to select and view promotional shots of the product, and view various (randomly selected) video news and reviews – according to TestFreaks, these are taken from all sources on the web, including the likes of YouTube, Hulu and other high profile, highly trusted video content sites.
When asked if the team had any plans for a mobile version of TestFreaks, Arwin was quick to say he loved the idea, and with a few iPhones around the office – he hinted he wouldn’t be leaving us out:
“We think the mobile space is really interesting, especially in markets such as Japan, which is in the forefront of mobile web usage.
There are quite a few iPhones in the office at the moment so I would be surprised if we don’t develop an iPhone app rather soon.”
It’s a pretty-damn hot site, and I just thought I’d share my find with you!
If you’ve got a bit of time, I highly suggest you go and check it out!
Check them Out: Test Freaks
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