Your turn to rate websites

The folks at the Credibility Commons (run by the Information School at the University of Washington and the Information Institute of Syracuse University) are alpha testing a new Mozilla Firefox toolbar that allows users to access and add ratings to a database of website evaluations called CredibilityTalk.

Here's what it looks like:


It's VERY alpha, which they tell you right up front, but the idea is fascinating and, imho, full of promise. By clicking on the "Site rating" icon, you can see how others have rated the site (once others start rating). By clicking on "Rate site," you can rate it yourself. And by clicking on "Automatic Rating," you can see how their software does in evaluating the site. A number of more-or-less quantifiable criteria are used for that one, including whether or not contact information is available, if the site has been recently updated, if the links work, and so on. Hmm, my library site only got a "20% trustworthy" ranking...