What has the internet become?

I am old enough to remember the world before the internet and throughout the last 14 or 15 years I have watched it go from a nice to have to being an absolute life essential. In the beginning it was a place to find information, yet it has gone from the lofty ideals of youth to the other extreme.

The internet today is a place where you have to question what is before you and employ a healthy dose of cynicism. The information you need is still there but it is tucked away behind the attempts to sell you things or lead you off in another direction. Companies view the internet as a “channel of distribution” while, the user must remember that they should look at the internet as a source of information and a way of saving time and effort as well as money.

It takes longer these days to get what you want from the internet but it is still worth it, you just need to remember that many websites and companies are trying to relieve you of your hard earned cash. Some are legitimate, some indulge in sharp practices and some are actually untruthful and misleading. In the case of consumer finance websites, unfortunately, it tends to be that virtually every site is either using sharp practices or is misleading.

So how did it get to this point, where I am worked up enough about it to change my plans, career, develop a website and start ranting on a blog. The owners of http://www.thebestbestbuys.com/ have all worked for either one of the major financial comparison websites, a major bank or both. We came together to offer consultancy services to banks and building societies but when we started to research the business idea it became apparent that virtually every financial comparison website hides the best products behind their sponsored links or partner’s products.

In most cases you can find the right information. You will need to get to the home page, choose the required section, get past the sponsored products and partner’s products and fill out the search. Even then three of the major comparison sites have one last go at selling you their sponsored links or partner’s products.

Our issue with this is that anybody who did not know too much about the subject or wasn’t paying attention will be taken in by the subtle tricks being employed and can quite easily end up with a product that is not the best in the market. They went on to the internet to get the best deal. Financial Comparison websites are supposed to give you details of the best financial products. However, it would appear that there has been a huge disconnect here. The visitor to one of these sites must spend time searching for the information and they have to then check it against other sites to make sure they can trust it. Not really in keeping with what the net should be or what we hoped it would be.

It should be straight forward to use the internet to get the information you require. However we are now entering a time where only the users can ensure other users know where to go to find what they need. Forums, Blogs, Twitter and recommendations from friends on Facebook should now be the first step when searching for information on anything important in life.

We have therefore started to aggregate the aggregators, http://www.thebestbestbuys.com/ looks at hundreds of financial best buys and puts the top 5 in easy to read tables. The right information should never be more than two clicks away and you can be sure that the site is giving you the right information to start you on your way to finding the right financial products to suit you. Hopefully our approach to publicising the best mortgages, savings, loans and credit cards brings the internet back to what it should be and what we all hoped it would be.

Please check out http://www.thebestbestbuys.com/ Please give us your feedback on the site and the concept.

Please recommended it to friends, family and colleagues but only if you think it is worthy.