Unvarnished Lets People Leave User Reviews of... You.

Mar 31 by Navneet Alang | 1 comment

Well it’s difficult to imagine what might go wrong this idea. Unvarnished, which today launched into a private beta, is a new service that lets people leave anonymous reviews of you. Yep. Anonymous reviews. About you! Fun!

In theory, the site is meant to be a sort-of open version of Linked-In where anyone can post a review of you (in whatever capacity) and you, if you like, can claim your profile.

Site founder Pete Kasanjy argues that anonymity is crucial to the system because, instead of the glowing recommendations of Linked-In, you’ll get real, honest feedback on a person. With the need to appear nice gone, people are free to say what they really think.

Because the system seems ripe for abuse, Kasanjy says that users behavior will be tracked, and the more reviews they leave, the more credibility they’ll gain, so that someone who does a quick hit-and-run review will only have one-star, while people with many could have four or five.

The ultimate goal here is to make honest opinions about people accessible online. Whether that is an idea that can work – or is even desirable – is something that remains to be seen.

[Source: GigaOM]

WRITTEN BY NAVNEET ALANG

Navneet Alang is a technology-culture writer based in Toronto. You can find him on Twitter at @navalang

COMMENTS
  • Desmond

    Claims to anonymity are dubious when you have to log in with facebook. Now that scares me.

    Also, you might want to check out http://www.dirtyphonebook.com which is the same concept, also was released a week ago, and is organized around phone numbers.