Rating sites are the rage, there is no doubt about it. The fact that Google loves these sites and ranks their pages extremely well makes them a super enticing business option for many online entrepreneurs. So these sites are coming out of the woodwork in droves, becoming more and more niche specific, targeting a specific profession or profile type, but all with the same intention overall.

To attack or ruin someone’s personal or professional online reputation.

The latest and greatest trend we’ve seen has been sites like Rate my Teachers. While some students and parents rate the teachers and professors well, more often than not they are simply complaints designed to hurt the online image of the teacher or professor being written about. There are already several different copycat versions of this site, and I expect that more will follow shortly. Once again, these sites rely heavily on the CDA (Communications Decency Act) and are completely protected from any type of legal action by the teachers or professors that have pages written about them based on that federal law. Which by the way is now 16 years old. So it’s not going anywhere my friends. It’s been challenged and taken to task. All to no avail, because 16 years later it’s still running strong. If you know anything about the American legal system, the longer a law is in place, the harder it is to change. Continue reading →