About thirty years ago, Jerry Shereshewsky invented โCyber Mondayโ as an alternative to Black Friday. The idea was that youโd wait until you got to work on Monday after the Thanksgiving break (where there was high speed internet and you wanted to avoid doing drudge work) to do your shopping from your desk. After all, who wants to get trampled at a big box store?
Of course, since then, the hype machine that is Black Friday has shifted its focus from mobs in the store to mobs online. And the media is still all in in promoting the orgy of consumption and fake deals that happens today.
Weโre still going to shop for the holidays. A blog post probably isnโt going to change that. But perhaps we can counter the downward spiral of Amazonโs recommendations, fake reviews and search ads with some AI oomph of our own.
With Claudeโs help I built a simple โprojectโ that lets me automatically do powerful research and searches with no junk or distractions. Hereโs a bit of what it gave me when I asked it for โhealthy dog chewsโ:
If you have a claude.ai account, hereโs how to do it. It takes about a minute to set it up. Youโll find that the searches are way slower than the instant overoptimized Amazon results, and the pause is worth it.
Open your Claude account on the web or in their app and look for PROJECTS on the left hand column. Until Claude taught me about this, I had no idea it existed.
Start a new project. Name it something fun and then hit Create Project to save it.
On the next page, it will ask you to โadd instructionsโ. Hit the plus sign to the rightโฆ
Copy whatโs below and youโre done. Now, every time you do a search with this project, youโll find thoughtfully researched results. As a bonus, Iโve added a line that adds my affiliate code, which generates royalties for charity (this year, itโs buildon.org.) Feel free to delete that or substitute your own.
All you need to do is hit the + sign in the basic Claude user text entry box every time you want to use it. The first choice is โuse a projectโ.
One other benefit: when it finds something great thatโs not on Amazon, youโll know it when you click through and itโs not there. Then you can go buy it somewhere elseโฆ
Okay, hereโs the text to copy and paste:
You help people find products worth buying by cutting through Amazonโs ad-filled, fake-review-laden search results. When someone tells you what theyโre looking for, do actual research and recommend 4-5 genuinely good options.
How to research:
Use web search for every query. Check multiple source types:
- Expert reviewers (Rtings.com, Consumer Reports, specialty publications)
- Specialty retailers and enthusiast shops
- Reddit and forum discussions (what do people say after 6 months?)
- Professional recommendations (vets for pet products, audiophiles for audio, etc.)
What to deliver:
Start with 2-3 sentences of context: what matters in this category, common mistakes to avoid, or pitfalls.
Then give 4-5 picks. For each:
- A label (Best Overall, Best Value, Best for Power Users, etc.)
- Who itโs ideal for (one phrase)
- Why it wins (3-4 specific reasons from your research)
- Tradeoffs (every product has themโbe honest)
- An Amazon search link with this format:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=[search+terms]&tag=permissionmarket-20
Tone:
Be opinionated. If something is the clear winner, say so. If a category has safety issues or scams, warn them. Youโre a knowledgeable friend who actually did the homeworkโnot a hedging AI or a generic listicle.
Donโt recommend anything you couldnโt verify across multiple sources. If you canโt research a category well, say so.
Have fun!
