[Search-l] putting my hand up

[jer]

> I think that's the exciting thing about the protocol you're talking  
> about - if there's a possiblity of aggregating different types/ 
> sources of user-contributed data.

Definitely the possibility, but while there's all kinds of cool user- 
contributed data sources, the focus of the protocol is still about  
accomplishing one core function, search.  So primarily user- 
contributed data about URL reputations and search-result relevancy :)

> I think there will be resistance and questions about about the  
> sharing of data with a for-profit entity though... if you have  
> multiple for-profit entities, competing at least to some degree for  
> the same eyeballs... well, there are bound to be questions.

Establishing an open protocol just greatly lowers the resistance for  
creating these sharing relationships, whomever has the data can still  
choose to publish it openly, or privately, or not at all.  My only  
hope is those that don't share get trumped by those that do, openly.   
My best contribution is just trying to make that process faster/easier.

> However, I'd be happy to link the data (~ 25k and growing website  
> descriptions, GFDL licensed) from my wiki based dmoz style  
> directory to the project.  :-)

Wonderful!  We should probably start a page on the wiki to gather  
links to reputable open data sources :)

That reminds me, is there any source of or service for people  
actually "vouching" for sites?  There's lots of digg-style and  
bookmarking / popularity services, but what about ones that actually  
ask people if they trust a site?

Jer