(2009-08-15) Maney Rating Everything

Kevin Maney predicts that we'll be rating everything (Product Review, Reputation Management). When I wonder what Rich Barton might get into next, he leans forward to tell me his investment mantra: "If it can be rated, it will be rated," he says.... Today's ratings are only the raw material for what's to come. Rearden Commerce's Web-based personal assistant already helps employees in corporations like Con Agra make travel plans, by quizzing them about their age, income, job, family situation, lifestyle, and preferences like favorite types of restaurants. (J P Morgan Chase will roll out a Rearden-based travel adviser to its credit-card customers later this year.) The next step, says Rearden CEO Patrick Grady, is to pull in ratings from all over the Web and mash them up with anonymous information from Rearden users. Then, if a beef-loving cat-litter salesman is traveling to Dallas, the system can recommend a top-rated steak house where other cat-litter reps have had luck taking pet-shop owners to close deals. "You'll see more passive ratings turned into active suggestions by software that runs behind these sites," Rich Barton says. "It's a hard problem to get right, but it will be super-compelling."

I think as any rating area hits Critical Mass, it will become important to apply the Social Network Context to filter it.