That would make it a bit like the old Zeal directory (RIP) - Zeal - where people rated Web sites - that was used by various search engines. Do we know how those data were used?

Yes it would open it to abuse if they did that, but if a huge majority of people said a page did not deserve top ranking for a keyword, maybe they could use that as a flag to check it manually - - and then decide if it is really spam or junk. They could also discount raters who are consistent abusers if they want to go that route and they could use the cumulative ratings for all pages on a site as an overall rank.

But it seems they are going in the opposite direction with personalized search - give each person what they want to see. Republicans get "Bush is a genius" Democrats get "Bush is a Bum" - whatever.

I don't know if I like personalized search. I think the world is a generally a better place if you can see what other people think, rather than re-arranging the results so they support your preconceptions. Tell me something I don't know, rather than something I know. I can sort out the good from the bad, but I ought to see all of it.

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