Hi,
Last post was about the idea of tapping on the Long Tail content base. That is, being able to have sites with a small user-base get the attention they deserve over sites such as Stumbleupon. However rather then aggregating the data according to the amount of users and ties the site generated, the quality not the quantity of the votes would be the factor counted. That is if the proven experts in that specific field the site was all about, would put their thumbs way-up on the sites content, then it would reach high on the charts.
If such a thing would prove possible then maybe advertising could be of real benefit to users, rather then a pain in the…as is the current situation. It could bring things closer to the Gmail ad service promise. Making ads relevant to the users specific interests, but at the same time turning the on-line ad business up-side-down as ads would appear according to the actual value the product created for its users and not according to the skill in which the advertiser used key words…
Say I was a user interested in open source tools for editing video, and Stumbleupon according to the paradigm explained above would rate Zulo as a grate place for such content. I’d get on the same content page ads for the extra cables, video camera etc that are necessary for creating video content. However because it would be possible to rate niche products and not only those bought by masses of people I’d have only products rated by experts as the best products, appear as ads on my content page.
While advertisers would continue paying for each user clicking on an ad. Sites would actually create greater value for their users by offering them this extra , proven expert-knowledge practical information on top of the sites-content.
There is just one small problem. How do you define “value” for a group of users. Value can be the price of the product or the performance of the product or any other character of the product . How do you decide what is most valuable for the random visitor/user?
Yael
Techbowl 
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