So you need a vacuum. Or the best hair dryer. Or a rug, dishwasher or hiking boots. Where do you turn? A year ago, that answer may have been simple. You’d read “Top 5 Hiking Boots” from your favorite and most trusted digital publications or some reviews online and scan Amazon’s five-star ratings to determine your top choices. Then, you’d make a purchase.
Today, there are a few more challenges to contend with. There’s a plethora of AI-generated content, which might leave you wondering, “Did a real person actually review these boots? Or did a bot just gather some random opinions and maybe hallucinate in the process?” In 2024, “Google broke product journalism,” publicist Michelle Songy wrote on LinkedIn. She’s referring to multiple steps Google took in 2024, including targeting certain websites that they claimed took advantage of site rankings despite being off topic.
Will Kenton, former editor at Investopedia and Taboola, started getting frustrated with Google’s decision to effectively “shut down the affiliate magazine business,” and with the rise of low-quality, user-generated and AI content. So, he set out to do something about it, along with colleagues Brie Dyas and Nick Leftley, who came from TIME Stamped, Associated Press Buyline, Maxim and other product review publications that fell victim to Google’s rules.
In June, In My Expert Opinion (IMEO) launched, with a different business model. Their mission was simple but complex in an ever-changing internet landscape where the rules shift as frequently as a toddler running a Candy Land game: Build a community-driven platform where writers are fairly compensated and readers can find reliable, engaging product reviews that go much more in depth than formulaic SEO-driven content or AI summaries.
“Our journey began following a major shift in the online landscape—the Google algorithm update of 2024—which displaced credible publishers, leaving consumers overwhelmed by questionable sources and unreliable advice from platforms like Reddit and Quora,” IMEO’s website states. “Not only did Google punish legacy news sources, they replaced quality, human-made information with AI overviews and fake reviews.”
Kenton says that Google is “trying to suppress the kind of freely made information in order to be in the middle of the economic transactions.” That is, to make money. “We were all very upset when Google essentially turned off the traffic to our websites,” he says. “People want good information, and they’re finding it harder to get.” In response, IMEO is facilitating the conversation around single physical objects, like those hiking boots or a vacuum, with the goal of having 2,000 reviews.
Songy shares some key points about IMEO. According to her LinkedIn post:
- “Writers retain ownership of their content and earn through affiliate revenue and ad-sharing.
- [The] system [is] designed to respect the value of expertise while offering a sustainable business model.
- Right now, they’ve got 57 expert contributors signed on, with plans to grow the community and launch interactive forums and a newsletter soon.”
So, if you want to know whether a writer feels a travel pillow is actually helping her sleep on a plane or if a “power bra” for back pain is helpful or hype, the IMEO community can let you know.
According to Kenton, 99% of IMEO’s writers are people they know personally, such as colleagues, or people they know through others, which “kind of goes with our ethic of trying to keep it local and make sure that you’ve got a truly trustworthy source—somebody you’ve seen face to face.”
Photo by Ground Picture/Shutterstock
