FOAF AS PART OF A REPUTATION SYSTEM

Very interesting thoughts - I've been thinking vaguely about how search engines could take advantage of networks of trust (like those set up with FOAF) to deliver the missing aspect of reputation as they deliver their search results. A reputation measure would add a human dimension to the value system created in search engines like Google through PageRank etc. I haven't really thought it through to the nth detail, but it strikes me that if you could rate pages that you trust akin to the way we add favourites in our browsers, and then lock into a network of recommendations based on the people we "trust" when searching, there might be that missing level of "you should read this article because your peer group recommends it as well as it being relevant to the search terms that you entered". Sorry if this is a bit garbled, I wrote a bit more about it on my blog last night.

Mark, that is very interesting. Search results based (in part) on the reputation of those you trust....I think that certainly has a lot of potential. I have decided to create new thread (blog entry) on the topic: Reputation for better search relevancy