If you’ve ever browsed through eBay, then you know that both buyers and sellers have ratings and reviews that let you know ahead of time whether or not that individual is a good person to do business with. In a marketplace like eBay, this type of evaluation system is very important, but even then, it’s not always the most reliable way to make a judgment call. In addition to that, this is eBay’s system, so unless you’re buying from them, the information probably isn’t going to be that useful to you. RapLeaf has helped to solve this problem by building a portable ratings system that applies to a buyer or seller no matter where they may do business.

To search for someone, all you have to do is enter in their e-mail address, which is the identifier for the person. To start building your own reputation, just create an account with RapLeaf, enter in any other accounts and contact information that you use, and then encourage anyone who’s ever done business with you to rate you objectively. In order to widen the net of collected feedback, RapLeaf even allows your friends to comment on you. Statistics are easily digested, and ratings can be filtered to show a visitor to your profile the feedback that they want to see. Now all that’s left to do is to embed your reputation score on the Web pages under your control in order to show what you’re really like.

Tags: rapleaf, ebay, buyers, sellers, ratings, reviews, marketplace, e-mail, reputation, friends, feedback, profile