WASHINGTON POST — May 30 — There's a handful of new Web sites that are making it their business to let users review their online dates. "This dater takes great photos, but when you meet face to face, he's small and skinny. The face is the same, but none of his photos show his true size," says a typical posting. Singles, be afraid. Be very afraid. Truedater launched in January. Visitors can input online identities from Match, American Singles, Yahoo Personals and JDate and search for reviews that'll tell them if, say, Lovinit62 isn't quite the six feet he claimed, or if Cutedoctor14 seems longer in the tooth than 32. Helpful links take you to the target's profile with a button click. The site's basic question: whether the person reviewed is a "truedater," i.e., truthful in his or her self-portrayal. Match.com's Kelly says, "a free-form venue to discuss people is interesting. That does seem to be something that consumers want to do. But you have to be real careful about violating people's privacy." Opinity.com launched last month as an "online and social reputation services company," also guards its information carefully. "We don't let users browse the reviews," says CEO Ted Cho. "This is not for fun." Users can rate other people online under the categories of commerce (say, a seller on eBay) , community (a voice on a Yahoo message board), gaming (a player of Ultima Online) or dating. FULL ARTICLE @ WASHINGTON POST
Mark Brooks: This idea may well catch on. Bodes well for Truedater.com. How will they make money though? Background check add-ons perhaps? Advertising?
I hope one of these players gets the traction necessary to get enough members to be useful. Both fall short when it comes to completing the loop. Databases full of people complaining about people are only 1/2 the business model. The other 1/2 has to do with “fixing what’s broken” with coaching, better photos or a personal ad makeover. Look for partnership along these lines soon.
Right now the questions around reputation management are just emerging. The old political saw, ‘trust but verify’ will be profoundly important in the web marketplace of ideas and conversations, services offerred and services bought, etc. Creating the value and the visibility will doubtless have to come first. If that happens soon enough, then the viability issues can be sorted out.