![]() ![]() But it’s not quite evidence it’s a gut feeling, a vibe. Many point out a specific moment when things changed, as Casabona did in his tweet: in 2016, when The New York Times acquired the site for more than $30 million. The testing processes and articles, some people argue, seem less exhaustive others contend that the recommended products are of a lower quality in recent years. Similar gripes have become common across Reddit comments, message-board threads, and social media. Then, after a string of underwhelming purchases based on the site’s recommendations, he got fed up, tweeting in January 2022 that the site’s recommendations had gotten worse. While scrolling through product reviews for microphones, his area of expertise, Casabona started to feel that Wirecutter’s recommendations were off-“too obvious,” he told me. And, for reasons big and small, that seems to have become an impossible task on today’s internet. The site has to be comprehensive and cater to the preferences of mercurial readers. Wirecutter, which is clearly inspired by publications such as Consumer Reports, must make the case that Seventh Generation 100% Recycled Extra Soft & Strong Bath Tissue is in fact materially better than Cottonelle Ultra ComfortCare (which was once the site’s top pick but has now been dinged for being the “dustiest and lintiest” of all the options tested). ![]() To make money from its guides and keep readers coming back, the site fundamentally needs to offer persuasive arguments for each recommendation it needs you to trust it. If you’ve ever searched online for the “best” anything, there’s a good chance that Wirecutter’s DNA was in almost every single article you found. (It’s also why you’ll find the same stuff in so many Millennial kitchens.) Wirecutter helped popularize a genre of lucrative recommendation content-where the site gets a cut of every purchase you make after you click on “affiliate” links to Amazon or other partner sites-and spawned a series of copycats. It’s why Wirecutter has evolved from a niche website into a cultural phenomenon over its 12 years. I have a similar story, and you might also. “I really felt I could trust them,” he told me, “and Wirecutter became my go-to.” Casabona, an audio-gear specialist, remembers thinking he’d found his people. This work was documented in the form of sprawling posts, many the length of a magazine feature. The reviewers were bona fide subject-matter experts or enterprising obsessives who approached finding the best dishwasher with the fervor of crime-scene investigators. An exhaustive, nearly comical amount of research went into every category: Toilet-paper recommendations were backed by 50 hours of testing. They worked well, so he kept going back he appreciated the rigor of the site’s product reviews. Joe Casabona’s love affair with Wirecutter began in 2013, when the site recommended a pair of inductive winter gloves-the kind that let you interact with a touch screen while staying toasty. This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic, Monday through Friday. Produced by ElevenLabs and NOA, News Over Audio, using AI narration.
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