…which is particularly timely because I had two conversations with people running agent review sites in the past 24 hours, where they showed me new stuff they are going to be releasing in the next few days/weeks.

I found these quotes from Michael’s post most interesting:

“Perhaps more importantly, is it possible to synthesize this data into a “score” or “rank” in order to provide the consumer with a recommendation? This is what I’ll refer to as the tyranny of the ordered list.

…the reality is that matching a specific consumer’s needs to a specific agent’s qualifications remains ridiculously complex.”

After getting a demo of one of the review sites today, I came away impressed because the people behind the site might, *just might*, have hit upon a way to get at specific consumer needs while using a “score” or “rank” (without necessarily making a recommendation).

Nonetheless, despite a recent burst of activity in this space, Michael makes the case that these types of agent review sites may actually be a disservice to consumers:

“The power of a ranked list is daunting, because it provides an easy short-cut.  Why look at agent two or three when there is a number one?”

Consumer-friendly or not, there clearly appears to be a market for consumers to research an agent online (and in particular for people moving long distances), so it will be interesting to watch if people can get traction (both within the industry and among consumers) with a more compelling agent-review product.