For learning about products, Mastodon "word of mouth" seems very definitely superior to search and reviews in the usual (far from credible) places.
Asking about travel laptop backpacks, I learned about, got feedback on the following brands that did not appear prominently when Googling (or Kagi-ing or Amazon-ing) laptop backpacks generically:
Jandd
Nomatic
Osprey
Quechua
Rickshaw
Tom Bihn
Tatonka
Also Targus, which does show up more easily. Plus, I got a kind offer of an extra!