When it comes to finding products that are built to last, the BuyItForLife subreddit is a great place to start your search. We decided to take a look at the most and least popular brands on the subreddit, based on sentiment analysis of 2 years worth of data.

Some of the results were surprising, such as IKEA and Craftsman ranking relatively high despite not being known for durability. At the other end of the spectrum, we see a number of mass-market brands that are producing disposable electronic products, such as Samsung or LG. It's no surprise that these brands are less popular on a subreddit dedicated to finding products that will last a lifetime.

Overall, the results provide a good starting point for anyone looking for durable products that are built to last. We'll work on rolling this kind of analysis out to many more subreddits, stay tuned!

Here are some of the comments from Reddit users that we found particularly interesting:

"I’ve been using the same 500 mL Pyrex glass measuring cup in my kitchen for the past 20+ years.

I’ve been using it so long, in fact, that the measurement levels printed on the outside have completely faded from the glass, rendering it nearly useless as a measuring cup.

It now functions as a sort of Zen kitchen sculpture that defies interpretation and occasionally holds ice cream."

From user u/jraz84 about his experience with Pyrex

"Patagonia and REI definitely top tier quality stuff. Don’t have to be a camper or hiker to enjoy their clothes"

From user u/wafflepiezz about Patagonia and REI

"bought a Victorinox 8" chef's knife in 2011. It's still my go to knife. Thing is a beast and takes to a good sharpening really well. Best $30 I've spent to date."

From user u/magneticgumby about Victorinox

"Ikea does what it does better than you'd expect and their premium ranges, for the money, are very hard to beat. I dabble in quality management auditing and Ikea is often used as a gold standard for QA, if you've got a bit of Ikea furniture which has failed after 3 years, the chances are that Ikea designed it to last three years.

I will add that there's been a noticeable decline in some elements (particularly the switch from all metal to plastic cam locks) which might result in some deterioration even in more premium ranges, but again it's hard to judge because the old metal ones were far too easy to overtighten to the point of catastrophic destruction."

The most and least popular brands on r/BuyItForLife

We recently compiled a list of the top 30 most popular vacuums on Reddit, specifically the r/VacuumCleaners subreddit. This could eventually evolve into a useful resource for researching products and might prevent some repetitive questions/general advice we see when people are researching good vacuums. While cleaning ability on a single surface (either carpets or hard floors) tends to plateau around $300-500, a higher price will correlate with a longer service life, better filtration, and greater versatility.

We used a machine learning technique called Named Entity Recognition "NER" applied to comments and posts until two years back.

We'll work on a sentiment chart (positive/negative mention) next. From the first results, people generally seem to recommend products more than complain about them, so we expect a correlation between discussion volume and the most popular/liked products.

There's a wide variety of vacuum cleaners on the market, and it can be tough to decide which one is right for you. Do you need an upright or canister model? Should you get one with a brushroll switch? And what about the different types of nozzles? The moderators of r/VacuumCleaners published a very helpful flowchart that helps with these decisions:

Canister vacuums with an electric nozzle are generally the most expensive, but are also the most versatile and effective on all flooring types. Uprights with a brushroll switch are well suited to homes with mostly carpet, while canisters with a turbine nozzle are better for homes with mostly bare floors.

There is also a graphic that helps with finding the right canister floor tool:

While this blog post and our analysis might be a good starting point, you can always make a "Purchase Advice" post on r/VacuumCleaners to get a personalized recommendation based on your budget, flooring, and additional needs.

We analyzed the most popular vacuum cleaners on Reddit (r/VacuumCleaners)

The cost per month of ownership feels like a great metric that shifts consumer mindset - the longer you own something, the more you save. Seems obvious, but most people don't think that way.

With the ExitReview platform, we can fight planned obsolescence and help people find the most durable products in the world. In addition, this newly introduced metric could help save money. The cost of ownership is a huge concept (a well known metric for cars), explained well in this article:

"Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet."

A very simple first version of the calculation could look like this:

if warranty = lifetime, then price/expected lifetime
if warranty > average lifespan, then price/warranty
if warranty < average lifespan, then price/average years owned


Of course, estimating the expected lifespan of a product is very difficult and depends on many factors like frequency of usage, type of use, maintenance etc. As a start, we can do an estimation of the expected lifetime for each category. Once we collected enough data and reviews, we will be able to calculate a more accurate value for each type of product.

Cost of Ownership: Why Paying More Upfront Can Save You Money in the Long Run

This page was originally developed based on the content of the Subreddit r/BuyItForLife where people are searching for practical, durable and quality made products. 

I was always looking for a place to overcome cheap products and share product recommendations. The subreddit served me well, but most posted products weren't available anymore. One user explained the problem with the BIFL subreddit very well in his post:

"I joined this sub for the purpose of buying stuff like lifetime warranty backpacks (osprey), great tools, camp gear, kitchen wear ect. Yet this sub has basically became an Instagram for the old shit people find in they're grandparents house which offers no benefit to me now. I'm not going to buy, nor could I even find a kitchen aid mixer you grandma still uses from the 70s. Most stuff back then was made to last, we know that. I want stuff thats still made today with quality."

Wouldn't it be great to have an independent place to find information about a product and its manufacturer? And that's why we started this project.

It should become the Rotten Tomatoes for products, almost like you check the trustworthy rating of a movie before you watch it, people could check a product and its manufacturer before they purchase it.

We want to change the way people review products. We should review broken and almost worn-out products to teach how to identify cheap products (where are the stress points, what manufacturing techniques exist to alleviate those). Then compare those with used products well past their warranty period that hasn't broken, and look at why they haven't.

Shifting the consumer mindset towards a more sustainable lifestyle

The most important deciding factor when shopping is still the price. We want to change that. 

We are collecting data for every step in the life cycle of a product. How long does it last? Can I fix it if it breaks?

We aggregate reviews from the most trusted sources like Reddit to see if a product's quality has changed or gone down at some point.

We should spend our money on selected high-quality products instead of short-living garbage.

The most durable socks in the world are made of high-quality materials and are able to withstand years of use. They are designed to be comfortable, breathable, and long-lasting. According to our Reviews, the most durable socks in the world are:

So which one should you buy? I'll compare the two most popular brands: Darn Tough vs Smartwool. My journey to find the best socks in the world started two years ago. I bought the following pairs of socks around the same time and both have been worn and washed approximately the same amount of times:

Darn Tough Standard Light Cushion Crew Socks

Although these two models are not exactly one-to-one comparable, it gives a good impression about the overall quality of both brands since both models belong to the most sold socks of each brand.

Darn Tough Vermont Socks are purpose-built premium merino wool socks made in Vermont, USA. The great thing is their lifetime warranty so you never need to buy socks again.

It feels like the Darn Tough socks are made out of slightly rougher and thicker wool fabric. This results in better cushioning in comparison to the pair of Smartwool. Even though I was air drying them, I noticed a small shrinkage over the years so they don't fit as well as they used to.

Here is our AI-generated summary for them:

It's a blend of merino wool and nylon that will keep your feet dry and comfortable on any outdoor adventure.

Darn Tough offers a lifetime guarantee on all their socks. If you wear them out, they'll replace them for free.

The best sock for hiking, backpacking, trail running, or any other activity where you want to keep your feet comfortable and protected.

The socks are very breathable, so they will never make your feet hot.

The socks provide excellent arch support and cushioning.

This sock is more expensive than your average athletic sock.

I'm wearing my Smartwool socks almost every day for work, they are a great fit for my business-casual work outfit. I can see signs of wear and tear after two years of weekly use. The fabric at the heel became very thin. It won't take long until the weak spot will develop into a hole.

The socks are lightly cushioned, so they can be worn during any season.

It is a versatile activity sock that manages moisture, maintains warmth, and keeps its shape under rigorous conditions.

When backpacking with it, you’re going to want to designate a different, perhaps thicker sock for camp activities and bedtime.

Quality is not what it used to be. They started piling after a few washes.

The quality of Smartwool has gone down since it was bought by a larger company.

Darn Tough socks are very durable, but in my opinion not as comfortable and stylish as the Smartwool's. That's why I'm wearing Darn Tough mainly for hiking or other sports activities, while I prefer Smartwool for workdays. However, Darn Tough is definitely more Buy For Life, because they offer a lifetime warranty and their company is still independently producing their socks in Vermont/USA. Besides the durability issue at the heel, the pair of Smartwool feels very comfortable because of their thin and responsive fabric.

Other recommended brands include Icebreaker, Fox River, Kirkland, and Thorlo. It's important to note that while some people prioritize durability, others prioritize moisture-wicking or cushioning properties.

In this article, we will tell you about the most durable socks in the world. These are socks that have proven their durability over time and are still going strong. 

There has been a lot of discussion lately about the declining quality of Google's search results [0]. However, we haven't seen any major market shifts or serious competitors arise. Why is that?

Google won because they started early and had the right algorithm. Back in 1998, Google's PageRank was an innovative algorithm that calculated relevance based on counting backlinks instead of parsing the word counts in embedded HTML text like other search engines. This made Google way better than any other available search engine back then (Lycos, Yahoo, AltaVista, etc.), and within weeks, everyone was switching to Google.

A successful Google competitor just needs to be way better than what’s currently available. Nobody seems to have The next big idea for a better search engine yet.

Google then had the scale to grow with the internet. The high cost of maintaining a fresh index, and the decision by many large webpages to block most crawlers make it hard to start a new general-purpose search engine today. Google and Bing are currently the only search engines that maintain their own comprehensive webpage index.

Google pays Apple around $10bn a year to be the default search engine on Apple devices. They pay Mozilla a significant percentage of Mozilla's revenue to be the default in Firefox. Obviously Google is the default in Chrome. On Android, Google is deeply integrated into the OS. You can't compete with that by building a better search engine, even if you had the infrastructure and the capital. DDG and other competitors wrote about the issue of choosing your default search engine. Without laws or regulations, not much will change in this aspect.

By making its products and services work together, Google has been able to keep its customers locked in. This has been a key driver of Google's growth, making it difficult for competitors to replicate.

Google no longer producing high quality search results in significant categories

Ask HN: Why isn't there a Google competitor emerging?

[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/216573/worldwide-market-share-of-search-engines/

There has been a lot of discussion lately about the declining quality of Google's search results [0]. However,  we haven't seen any major market shifts or serious competitors arise. Why is that?

Why Google Search Still Dominates the Market

Our goal with SeekVPN is to rank the best VPNs according to the internet in the most trusted way possible. To do this, we only want to look at trustworthy reviews. We use the sentiment from trusted sources (and other import metrics like performance listed below) to calculate our InternetScore, which we use to rank VPNs.

Disclaimer: We originally shared SeekVPN on Hacker News and Reddit. At the time, SeekVPN didn't account for review manipulation (mostly via review articles and YouTube), and we received a lot of negative criticism. Based on everyone's feedback, we closely reassessed what content to include and exclude in our analysis outlined in this article.

The truth about VPN reviews is that they are mostly either written by VPN providers or highly influenced by their affiliate programs. We took on the challenge of finding VPN information you can trust and used this trusted information to rank the best VPNs according to the internet.

The VPN industry is full of false promises and shady businesses. It's a highly commercialized market, and companies are bought up by less reputable and bigger ones, making it hard to know who to trust.

Here are some things to consider when examining VPN reviews:

Most review websites use affiliate programs to generate revenue, which means they include links to products on their website with links to other websites. If they generate a sale, they earn a commission. 

Affiliate programs are not inherently evil as they allow reviewers to earn an income from their work reviewing products. Transparently, Looria participates in affiliate programs, which we transparently declare on the site. However, the problem with affiliate programs is that monetary incentives can influence reviewers to write positive reviews about products they wouldn't recommend otherwise. 

Many VPN affiliate programs are very lucrative. For instance, NordVPN's affiliate program offers a minimum of 30% of lifetime revenue for every customer their affiliates refer. Mullvad, on the other hand, does not have an affiliate program.

A popular tactic for companies to control their public narrative is fake reviews. Fake reviews mostly happen by paying people to leave positive reviews on sites like Amazon. They also occur by paying people with popular blogs or social media channels to positively review your product without disclosing payment.

With VPNs, it's even worse. Kape Technologies, a company accused of malware distribution and fraud, has recently been on an acquisition spree. They've acquired multiple popular VPN services (including ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, and Private Internet Access) and popular VPN review sites.

VPN review sites Kape Technologies own include vpnMentor.com, Wizecase.com, and SafetyDetectives.com (source). It's no surprise that these sites all rank VPNs owned by Kape as the best choices.

Finding trustworthy VPN content online is hard to find. We ultimately decided based on general resistance against fake reviews and affiliate incentives. Please note that these sources are not fool-proof, and we always recommend doing your due diligence before making a necessary purchase. These sources are also subject to change as trust issues emerge.

r/VPN is a community on Reddit that has been around since 2009 and is highly passionate about VPNs and personal privacy. The community has strict rules against commercial activity and encourages vendor-neutral discussion.

The r/VPN community collectively maintains a detailed VPN comparison table that compares VPNs by virtually every attribute you can think of, including jurisdiction, speed, reliability, security, and much more. u/ThatOnePrivacyGuy, a legend in the online privacy scene, first created this table but has paused his work for the time being. u/paperplans5 is one of the moderators of r/VPN and now the chief maintainer. He was kind enough to let us integrate the table data into SeekVPN.

Hacker News is the largest social news site covering technology, software, science, and entrepreneurship. Many of the brightest minds in technology regularly contribute to Hacker News. The VPN discussion on Hackers News is very thoughtful and critical.

While there is good VPN content beyond Reddit and Hacker News, we struggled to find other content we could trust more openly.

We reviewed countless "Best VPN" articles and YouTube videos, and most of them did not give us high trust signals.

In CNET's Best VPN article, they communicate concerns around Kape's acquisition of ExpressVPN but still rank ExpressVPN as #1. Most "Best VPN" articles appear blindly recommend VPNs with the biggest brands and richest affiliate offers without much of a critical lens. We also found that Mullvad is not often recommended, despite being the most popular VPN in VPN communities. We assume Mullvad's lack of an affiliate program is a major influencing factor.

Articles that appeared trustworthy were Wirecutter, Wired, Consumer Reports, and Privacy Guides.

Nevertheless, to clearly distinguish which sources we chose, we excluded review articles altogether.

We excluded reviews from these places because fake reviews are rampant with VPNs and fake reviews still plague app marketplaces, like the App Store and Play Store.

Once we determined our sources, we worked on a ranking system that we thought was as fair as possible. We started each VPN with their overall score on the r/VPN comparison table, which scores VPNs based on their specs. We then adjusted those scores based on sentiment and volume of discussion on Reddit and Hacker News.

See which VPNs ranked the best according to our calculations.

Read more about how we collect and analyze reviews.

The truth about VPN reviews is that most of them are either written by VPN providers or highly influenced by their affiliate programs. We took on the challenge of finding VPN information you can trust.

Ranking The Best VPNs According to The Internet

Looria Blog