I was stumbling my way around the Internet yesterday, and ran across a company called Critical Metrics. They are apparently still in "stealth mode", but not sure what that even means these days, as they have working site and their first application is open to the public. I think the trendy thing to do is call the company in "beta"!
At any rate, it's a fairly interesting idea: By now, everyone knows about the value of the voice of the consumer, and using consumer reviews and ratings as a selling tool. But the Critical Metrics value prop is based on making recommendations based on the collective wisdom...er, tastes of professional critics, and not the general public. Their first application of this algorithm is in music playlists, but their site alludes to future applications as well. I'm not entirely sure I'm sold on this yet, as the whole music recommendation market seems pretty crowded to me, and they have an uphill climb to make this a success.
The bigger question for me, is what value do professional critics have in the media today, especially the Internet? When is the last time you bought music on the advice of a review in Rolling Stone, SPIN, or Blender? Or went to see a movie because Roger Ebert gave it four-stars? Perhaps this is where my version of reality is somewhat skewed by what I do for a living. I spend all of my time on the Internet, so my exposure to consumer reviews is about 100x my exposure to professional critics. The only exception to that rule might be with food and wine, but I think you get the point.
But maybe, just maybe, this is the genius of Critical Metrics: perhaps they recognize that the role itself of the professional critic is gradually shifting to that of a "highly trusted reviewer", and they are not simply aggregating the recommendations of a group of random people, but a group of people who are perceived to be experts at what they are reviewing. Take the collective wisdom of professional critics, and expose them to a customer that may have long-forgotten what value their opinions actually hold. An interesting evolution of the role of "critic", and time will tell as to how this will play outside the context of mainstream media.
On a side-note, the guy behind the idea is a familiar name to those of you that remember the early days of the Internet: Joey Anuff, co-founder of Suck.com. Now that I've dusted that memory off for you, try not to spend the rest of your day reading the archives!
