I came to the comments to say how much I like Wirecutter. It's one of my favorite sites. Exceptional research for behind every recommendation and they always have a small range of choices to fit your exact needs or budget. Absolutely top notch stuff.

I used to think the same thing until I read a review for LED lightbulbs on one of their sister sites, The Sweethome [http://thesweethome.com/reviews/best-led-lightbulb/]. The review in question sounds like an infomercial for Cree and DesigningwithLEDs.com. It definitely made me question how impartial The Wirecutter and it's sister sites really is.

I don't understand. What about this review sounds suspicious to you? They like a specific brand of LED bulb. Isn't that the whole point of the site?

It's been a couple of months since I read it, but I remember that the tone just felt off to me. I think there's a couple of comments on the site that mention it sound like an infomercial. I think the frequent references to DesigningwithLEDs.com also put me off, kind of felt like the author was really trying to drive traffic to their own site.

The author runs DesigningWithLEDs.com. Presumably, that's why they chose her to write this review. If Sweethome is happy with the cross-promotion (to another website, of course, not to a reviewed product), I'm not sure I see what the problem is for the reader.

The question is, as in security, trustworthiness. Trust and/but/then Verify you say? If I have to verify, what's the point of trusting, might as well read amazon reviews and do my own research via google, fb, twitter etc. For a completely new user, a site that even 'smells' of shenanigans is hard to trust. First impressions and all that. If a site invites guest writers, who then shill for their own site, in the main copy of their post, rather than, say, the footnote or sub-title, it starts smelling fishy pretty fast.

This is a big reason why my last three laptops have been Apple. I've learned that the hardware is good and so is the service, and knowing this is valuable enough to me that the premium price (whether it's overpriced or not) is entirely worth it. (my opinions on the quality of late are very slightly diminished, but still positive)

As far as I can tell few or no other consumer technology company have built up this reputation of universal good quality, and that's actually very disappointing.