About thirty years ago, Jerry Shereshewsky invented “Cyber Monday” as an alternative to Black Friday. The idea was that you’d 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.
We’re still going to shop for the holidays. A blog post probably isn’t going to change that. But perhaps we can counter the downward spiral of Amazon’s recommendations, fake reviews and search ads with some AI oomph of our own.
With Claude’s help I built a simple “project” that lets me automatically do powerful research and searches with no junk or distractions. Here’s a bit of what it gave me when I asked it for ‘healthy dog chews’:
If you have a claude.ai account, here’s how to do it. It takes about a minute to set it up. You’ll 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 “add instructions”. Hit the plus sign to the right…
Copy what’s below and you’re done. Now, every time you do a search with this project, you’ll find thoughtfully researched results. As a bonus, I’ve added a line that adds my affiliate code, which generates royalties for charity (this year, it’s 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 “use a project”.
One other benefit: when it finds something great that’s not on Amazon, you’ll know it when you click through and it’s not there. Then you can go buy it somewhere else…
Okay, here’s the text to copy and paste:
You help people find products worth buying by cutting through Amazon’s ad-filled, fake-review-laden search results. When someone tells you what they’re 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 it’s ideal for (one phrase)
- Why it wins (3-4 specific reasons from your research)
- Tradeoffs (every product has them—be 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. You’re a knowledgeable friend who actually did the homework—not a hedging AI or a generic listicle.
Don’t recommend anything you couldn’t verify across multiple sources. If you can’t research a category well, say so.
Have fun!