I posted before about the three magic ingredients needed for effective use of metadata on the Internet. Blogs have given us step 1, the easy publishing of opinions. But the seconds steps, filtering and application, are still stuck in the pre-computer age. People have to hear about blogs and use old fashioned measures to decide its trustworthiness ("Does this guy have anything to gain? Do I know this guy?") And when it comes to applying this information, people have to rely on their own memory ("I think I remember reading about this company in a blog sometime back") or on proactively searching. (Searching for feedback about the company in a search engine.)

What is needed is a system that can see that you're at xyz.com, consult all your trusted sources for information about xyz.com, and give you immediate feedback. The people getting ripped off don't have to hope for front page coverage to get the word out, and the people who need to be warned don't have to try and remember every bad vendor out there.

This is what we're trying to do with Outfoxed.