Sunday, March 18, 2012

About Our GPS Reviews

You may have noticed a lot of GPS reviews showing up here over the past few weeks. It’s the holiday shopping season, and the message boards are full of "which GPS should I buy" questions, so I’m trying to create a resource that can help people make that decision. My posting frequency will go up for awhile but, along the way, I will continue to bring you original posts and news about GPS receivers and mapping software.

I’m trying to bring a degree of consistency to the reviews, so they (generally) include the following:

  • An introductory paragraph or two.
  • A link to Amazon’s page for that particular receiver, along with the stats on how many readers  have rated it and their average rating. I think it’s useful to read different people’s impressions of the unit, so my review "clipping service" is biased towards sites that let you read individual comments.
  • There is typically a banner ad for the receiver, along with Google text ad links at the end of the post. Yes, if you use these to make a purchase, I do get a small amount of revenue. It certainly helps pay the web hosting bills, but that’s about it so far.
  • Then there are links to a few other reviews, leaning towards sites that I think highly of (like www.gpsinformation.net) or ones where they have allowed various users to post their own ratings.
  • I close with some other resources. If I haven’t linked to it already, I give the manufacturer’s website.
  • I also include a link to the product manual (PDF) if that is available.
  • The post usually ends with a link to a discussion board for that particular model, if a good one (active and moderated to minimize spam) exists.

All in all, I’m trying to provide a one-stop clearinghouse for the information needed to select a receiver. You can help by posting your own comments. I welcome comments on GPS Tracklog and try to approve them ASAP.

My goal is to post reviews for the Amazon Top 20 best selling GPS receivers. This is a moving target, since the list changes hourly! Fortunately, the ranks don’t shift around all that much.

EDIT: I’ve reached my goal. Click here to go to my reviews of the top 20 best selling GPS receivers.

Linked to below are the reviews I have posted so far, along with their Amazon rank (as of this writing):

  1. Garmin StreetPilot c330
  2. Garmin StreetPilot i2
  3. Garmin Forerunner 301
  4. Garmin Forerunner 201
  5. Garmin StreetPilot 2720
  6. Garmin eTrex Legend
  7. Garmin Vista C
  8. Garmin Quest
  9. Garmin StreetPilot 2620
  10. Garmin StreetPilot i3

Additional reviews (and rank):

    11.  Garmin GPSMap 60CS
    17.  Magellan RoadMate 760
    90.  Garmin eTrex Venture

Finally, if you’re in the market for a GPS receiver, be sure to check out our newly updated GPS Buyers Guide.


About Rich Owings

Rich is the owner, editor and chief bottle-washer for GPS Tracklog. Connect with him on Twitter, Facebook or Google Plus.

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