Help
On this page:
Search Tips
How to get information about product quality:
- Search directly by the product name (e.g. “Sony DSC W5a”) and you will find out how the product has been reviewed and rated.
- For review information about a single category (e.g. in “Photography”) choose that category in the drop-down before you search.
- To find what you are looking for, you can sort the search results by product name, rating and price.
How to use alaTest search toolbar:
- Be general: Type general keywords (e.g. "digital camera" or "Canon" and "EOS 350D) and then click on the option that best suits your search. Keep in mind that too specific keywords (e.g. "Canon EOS 350D + EF-S18-55") usually do not generate the best results.
- Use only keywords: Avoid words like 'the' and 'a' and don’t use punctuation or symbols (e.g.,?,!, &, @ or $) to improve the results.
- Check spelling: Make sure you have spelled your search correctly.
- Search all categories: If you are not sure in which category a product can be found, choose “Search all categories” in the drop-down menu.
About alaScore™
|
What is alaScore™?
alaScore™ is a relative product quality rating based on a complex calculation that integrates the results from professional product tests and in a lower scale user reviews. alaScore™ indicates the quality rating of a product analyzed in comparison with similar products in the same category on a scale from 0 to 100. What are the alaScore™ intervals? To simplify the understanding of this complex algorithm, alaScore™ is represented by stars in different colors that show diverse quality rating intervals. 'No rating' is assigned when a product has been tested only few times and/or no rating have been assigned. In these circumstances, an alaScore would not be reliable. For a visualization of alaScore™, please refer to the table to the right. |
 |
Why alaScore™?
Because it is a reliable, objective and simple product quality rating.
Reliable: alaScore™ standardizes thousands of professional tests from a great number of sources in the world and develops them into the most unbiased result currently available. We believe that the more tests and reviews a product has, the more reliable the overall rating will be. Therefore, we have developed a service that helps you answer questions that a typical sales person might not want to answer to. A magazine, a newspaper or even a consumer organization testing products would not be completely helpful either since they are niche specific and cannot test all the products available on the market. We do not test any product ourselves; instead, we bring all the reliable tests to you for free.
Objective: alaTest is totally independent from the test sources included in our service. alaTest does not give preferences to any test source and has no influence whatsoever on any of their respective results.
Simple: As thousands of tests and reviews are published in the world - both online & offline - many products are rated differently by diverse sources. Because both test criteria and rating scales vary between test sources, it can be confusing for consumers.
What factors are included in the alaScore™ formula ?
alaScore™ is a complex algorithm but built around four key factors:
Factor 1: The relative product rating for each source in each category
Why? Because sources in general are very positive about the products they rate and end up giving them an overestimated score. As an example, more products are positively rated compared to poorly rated. Therefore, for every source, alaTest first calculates the relative score for each product in each category.
Factor 2: The reliability of the test source
Why? Because a test result from a source that has only tested one camera is likely to be less reliable compared to a result from a source that has tested more than 500 cameras. We believe that the more products a source has tested in a certain category, the higher the expertise of this source in the specific category will be.
Factor 3: The importance of professional reviews compared to user reviews
Why? Because alaTest acknowledges the expertise of professional reviewers and their results weight more in the rating calculation.
Factor 4: New products compared to old products
Why? Because at alaTest, we compare new products with other new products and also with old products. Each alaScore have a depreciation factor based on age assigned to it. This means that a mp3 player that where assigned a high alaScore, gradually will become lower with time. Product development is moving forward and the requirements on new products are getting more and more sophisticated. The depreciation will vary depending on the development pace in each category, where washing machines have a slower pace than mp3 players. To determine product age, we assign a fictive product age based on the average review date for all reviews in our database for that specific product.
Does a low alaScore™ mean that a product is not recommended?
Not necessarily. A low alaScore™ simply means that based on all the available reviews, this particular product is less good than other similar products within the same category. In other words, a low alaScore™ means that a product has a relatively lower quality compared to other products in the same category.
Can alaScore™ be incorrect?
Yes, this situation can occur when the ratings from external sources are not accurate and/or when a product has been rated only very few times.
FAQs
Does alaTest test any products?
No, we do not test any products ourselves. We leave all testing up to worldwide experts representing credible sources to perform product tests.
Does alaTest show complete professional product reviews?
No, we present summaries of thousands professional reviews; if there is a particular review you are interested in, we encourage you to click on the respective link to come to the original source. In some cases, publishers charge a fee for the complete content. We work independently from test sources and do not receive any revenue from traffic and acknowledge all the test sources integrated in the database.
Does alaTest sell any test?
No, we deliver valuable information for free. If you represent a product manufacturer, we can help you with global media scanning services for a convenient price. Please check our network section for further inquires.
Which products are included in the alaTest database?
We are in our initial phase and currently we concentrate our service on product quality information for the categories photography, home electronics and telephony. New categories will be coming up soon!
Can alaTest help me with a product test that is not yet available in the website?
Our database is constantly updated with latest test available in the market. If you did not find a test or test source in our website, please feel free to send us your tips and we will do our best to help you better!
Can I report incorrect product detail information and/or links?
Absolutely! Although alaTest strives for presenting accurate information to our visitors, technical or human errors can occur. We welcome suggestions as we persistently look for new ways to improve our services and apologize for potential errors on the site. Please contact us and we will make every effort to improve our service!
Will alaTest share my personal information?
No, the personally identifiable information we collect is not shared with third parties and we only use it for internal purposes. For more details, please read our privacy policy.
Does alaTest sell any products?
No, we are neither a merchant nor a shopping engine and therefore we do not sell any products. Instead, our goal is to simplify your shopping by aggregating product quality information with product specifications and local price information in a simple and comprehensive way.
Are the prices at alaTest up to date?
We strive to show up-to-date and accurate information and our database is updated on a daily basis with information from our partners. Yet, for security purposes we encourage you to check directly with the retailer to confirm availability, price and shipping costs.
Do the prices shown at alaTest include shipping cost?
Each shopping engine within the alaTest’s network has a different policy regarding shipping cost. We encourage you to click on the link from each partner and their respective retailer for further clarifications.
I need help with a product I purchased. Can alaTest help me?
As we do not sell any product, we recommend you to contact directly the retailer from which you made your purchase.
Do I have to be a member to receive alaTest newsletter?
No, you only have to subscribe to the alaTest newsletter. Members are automatically subscribed to the newsletter.
Membership Agreement
How can I become a member of alaTest?
To become a member you need to fill out our registration form. It’s easy, simple and free! After having completed the form, an e-mail will be sent to the address you registered with. This e-mail will contain a link which you must click on to activate your registration. The activation will only take a few minutes and then you can login in using the username and password you created.
Have you forgotten your login details?
Check your mailbox to see if you still have the original email from alaTest which contains your username and password. You can also request a reminder here.
I cannot log in. Can you help me?
Have you spelled the username and the password correctly? Please check Caps Lock and that your password does not include spaces, is a minimum of 6 characters and only contains the following characters: a-z, A-Z, 0-9. If these suggestions do not work, please contact our Webmaster.
