I care quite a lot about the products and services I consume, but don't find enough time to research the pros and cons of each one, so am keen to find shortcuts.

There are a number of sources I trust to tell me whether companies/products/ services fit my criteria for whether what I'm buying is ethical. My idea is for a browser plug-in (/skin/style sheet) which lets me choose the sources I want to trust, and the effects I want those sources to have on the web pages I'm viewing.

For instance, I might trust Greenpeace to provide a list of oil companies which have Bad, Average or Better than average impacts on the environment, and I might want this too be shown by having environmentally friendly companies highlighted in my browser with a green underline, and 'bad' companies with a red underline.

I should get a little message in the status bar of my browser when I visit a site which tells me what my trusted sources think e.g. Dell.com (Greenpeace : Good, FT Employment Survey: Top 10).

A couple of addenda
i) the idea is to parse each word in the text for whitelisted or blacklisted organisations
i) I reckon you'd only need to refresh each list (max) every week or so, there needn't be any real time activity.
-- neilp, Oct 19 2004

case in point http://www.ethicalc...s/boycotts_list.htm
I *might* trust these guys to give me a list of companies it thinks I should avoid. [neilp, Oct 19 2004]

thanks [Brau], this idea is more about the mechanism than the source, as there are some people (say my bro) who I would trust without question, this idea pre-assumes that your own personal lists exist, or can be assembled.
-- neilp, Oct 19 2004


would then a group of societies/organisations have to rate websites prior to you viewing them and make this information available to this plugin?

Seems a good idea as it would allow for the information that you see on the intranet to be qualified.

[also - v pleased that you trust your brother. Delighted for him ;)]
-- jonthegeologist, Oct 19 2004


[jtg] nah, all sites would have to do is publish a list of companies somewhere, this plugin takes care of the rest.
-- neilp, Oct 19 2004


The majority of goods sold on the internet are sold by SME's which go unnoticed by all the ethcial ratings agencies. That doesn't really make this idea unworkable, though. Croissant.
-- wagster, Oct 19 2004


SME? Subject Matter Expert? Single Male Entrepreuner? Simply Mad Economist?
-- bristolz, Oct 19 2004


Small Medium Enterprise (a short person who talks with the dead. For money.)

<off topic> There are a series of "honest ads" doing the rounds at the moment. My favourite is for a well known swiss company that rhymes with mestle.

"Go on. Try and boycott our products. Bet you can't. We make just about everything. Hahahaha, who's your daddy? We own you. La la la, we're not listening!"
-- egbert, Oct 19 2004


This is great, can you filter out other crap too, like right-wing fundamentalist idealougue propaganda? ;)

Although this won't help you to 'know your enemy'
-- TimD, Nov 22 2004


[egbert] - I saw a T-Shirt along similar lines

"World domination tastes better with Coca Cola".
-- neilp, Nov 23 2004



random, halfbakery