From 26,000,000 to over 1,000,000,000,000 in eight years! If the zeros blur together, the latter number is one trillion, which is the the milestone number of unique pages Google reportedly indexed by July 2008. There is little doubt the Internet is growing exponentially, but how do we assess the quality of content being delivered by such a staggering multitude of sources? We could discuss demographics, marketing, and a myriad of other industry aspects, but the reality of establishing trust among the Internet community distills down to a single concept: reputation.
Reputation is the opinion (more technically, a social evaluation) of the public toward a person, a group of people, or an organization. It is an important factor in many fields, such as education, business, online communities or social status. -
Wikipedia
Regardless of the industry, reputation is a key cornerstone of success. With the Internet representing a near virtual minefield of data, reputation becomes a moderating factor in the content we read, the sources we cite, and basically how we each interact the Internet in general. In other words, reputation defines the access, interpretation, and utilization of the vast resources available to us.
Look no further than the Internet's leading online sites and services for clear examples of reputation in action. For a specific case in point, and since it has already been mentioned, Google evolved from a group of Stanford University students to an Internet juggernaut with nearly 20,000 employees in scarcely more than a decade - not due to advertising dollars or marketing firms, but due to establishing a reputation of being an industry leader. Company founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin set a clear and concise mission statement, then worked to establish a reputation by fulfilling the mission. Accordingly, Google has dedicated its efforts to garner a reputation of providing accurate and concise information for its users - be it for web searches, current event news, or finding the latest online video of a cat playing piano.
Perhaps some are asking why the discussion on reputation. It is because reputation is a fundamental aspect of our entire business operation, and beyond most other considerations, reputation is how we have managed to build leading sites for technical discussion (
TechIMO), consumer-driven merchant ratings (
ResellerRatings), and more. Whether it is TechIMO being featured in the
New York Times as a recommended technical support resource, or ResellerRatings forging a partnership with the
New York Attorney General to crack down on fraudulent retailers, our reputation defines not only our success, but also how we are able to best serve the interests of both our users and the Internet community at large.
To further identify our core values and goals, our recently issued
ResellerRatings' Reputation of Trust statement provides a concise nine-point outline of the methodologies and practices we utilize on a daily basis to further establish trust between ResellerRatings and its users, and just as important, between consumers and merchants as well. We invite members and readers to evaluate our statement, in addition to utilizing the contact forms at
TechMO,
ResellerRatings, and other divisions of
All Enthusiast, Inc. to provide valuable feedback about our services.
As to a more general inquiry, our sites have clearly cultivated an extensive global community of diverse and expressive opinions. As such, we are interested in thoughts regarding how reputation influences members' online expectations, experiences, and interactions. For example, are there other particular sites offering reputations you exceedingly trust and value, and if so, feel free to list them and please briefly explain why.
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