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TrustWatch - Search and Reputation Meet

Source Title:
“Trust, But Verify”
Source Url:
http://blog.ask.com/2005/09/trust_but_verif.html
Story Text:
Trustwatch, powered by ASK gives you red, green and yellow trust signs on SERPS - Has this site been verified by other users? is the question asked. It's kind of interesting, but pretty easy to game by the look of it.

- Y! MyWeb

It looks like any site with...

It looks like any site with an SSL certificate automatically gets a green trust sign.

This domain is secured with SSL technology. Information transferred using SSL is kept safe while in transit for your protection.

Sites with a yellow "Not Verified" sign give this warning:

A Not Verified rating means that TrustWatch cannot determine that the site has been Verified by a Trusted Third Party. However, the site has not been listed on the TrustWatch ‘blacklists’ of disreputable sites. You should use caution before exchanging sensitive or confidential information with this site.

Sites with a red warning sign give this message:

A warning rating means that the site has been found on a TrustWatch ‘blacklist’ of disreputable sites. And/or a Trusted Third Party has indicated that a web site's identity should no longer be trusted. You should be advised that exchanging sensitive or confidential information with this site could put you at risk for identity and/or financial fraud.

You can click on the results that have a yellow "Not verified" sign and then select either "Report Site as Fraudulent" or "Site Nomination". If you click "Site Nomination" you can choose either "I like and trust this site" or "I do not like this site".

By willohara at Sep 27 2005 - 09:08

hmm

Not so sure that I would trust an algorithm or the popular opinion enough for it to matter (plus I did not even see any link to the individual reviews). If you didn't trust it wouldn't you prefer the opinion of a friend or some context from someone who really knows that topic before spending anything? Why should you trust the random red yellow or green all by itself?

It will also be interesting to see what happens when some businesses do not like the red flag they get.

By seobook at Sep 27 2005 - 09:21

Well the results for

Well the results for Norwegian search terms was pretty crappy and they pulled a lot of scraped content for top competetive keywords.

Not very interesting for others maybe, but always fun for me to check out :P

By kservik at Sep 27 2005 - 09:31

nope

SSL's from some providers don't seem to be automatically given trusted status.

There's also an issue that a lot of smaller sites use a CC processing system (provided by their bank for example) so marking them 'unchecked' unless they go sign up with someone is a bit cruel imho.

It's fine if the people who use it understand the limitations, but less fine if they don't. Hmm. Wonder which will be the case?

By Gurtie at Sep 27 2005 - 10:42

The underlying idea is good

The underlying idea is good as a response to all the phishing that is going on. I know a lot of people are becoming hesitant to buy from an unknown source.

I like seobook's comment, would like to see who is doing the rating and what they have to say about the site.

By Brad at Sep 27 2005 - 11:18

and it seems that El Reg

and it seems that El Reg have picked up a phishing site that is being given green light status. This is not a great start for a search and toolbar combination that is designed to give assistance in deciding whether or not to trust a site!

By JasonD at Sep 27 2005 - 17:26

If this idea would work, it

If this idea would work, it would be better over time as people rate sites.

By kservik at Sep 27 2005 - 19:31