Y’know, I was just thinking, thanks to the Internet, people are now becoming informed consumers. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t gone out to make a purchase without having consulted the Internet first. Me? I’ve been toying with the idea of upgrading to the Blackberry Curve 8900 for awhile now, but part of me has also been desiring the iPhone. So what’s a girl to do? Google both for reviews, of course. And after about 30 minutes of intense researching and oogling at both models, I managed to come to a decision (I’m getting the Blackberry, in case anyone’s counting), one that I’m very satisfied with.

Now imagine what it would’ve been like Before Internet (B.I.) – I’d have to scour through shelves of magazines, flip through the hundreds of ad-clogged pages, before finding that one review. Repeat process to look for a second, or even third one so you can gather more perspectives. By the time you’re done, you would’ve wasted plenty of precious time. And you still might not be extremely convinced.

You see, life B.I. didn’t allow us to read through user reviews – which, on more than one occasion, would give us a more representative/genuine feel of things, mostly because these guys (a) weren’t paid to write the review, and; (b) they’re real-world users. Besides, it’s always good to do some cross referencing and a couple of comparison checks to ensure you get the most accurate information. Yes? Now only if there was some programme to help us gather all these details and generate a side-by-side comparison chart. That would certainly be very useful.