made this for you | the future isn’t what it used to be

So how does one be good? And, apparently now I need a guide to tell me?

The Good Guide is an application for web and mobile devices, that gives ratings on how “good” a product is. We are not talking about “good”, as in how satisfied the customers are or the quality of the product. We’re talking about how good the product is moralistically.

The Good Guide website and mobile app measure a product’s moral good on “Health Performance”, “Environmental Performance”, and “Social Performance”. By my account these are all valid rating systems for a product.

The site provides links to Amazon for the products that they list, and gives users the ability to create a personal shopping list.

In theory, the site is a win. In practice it leaves a lot to be desired. The usability of the site, quality of content, and amount of content are all lacking; and could use some major attention. Things like this take time to develop though, and so I’m hoping in the coming months it will mature into something more useful.

My first request from the Good Guide, would be to have it integrate data from a more user friendly and content heavy site. How I search, sort, and see data should follow a more organized format. For example, I would like to be able to search the Amazon site through a “Good Guide” search bar, and have it bring up Amazon results with Good Guide ratings.

The site should also take more advantage of crowd sourcing. If I find a product that doesn’t have a Good Guide rating, it should allow me to rate it. The Good Guide should also provide guidelines on how to rate a product. The process of rating should be easy from a user perspective. Overall, I shouldn’t feel frustrated at the fact that a product I’m interested in isn’t rated, and there is nothing I can do about it.

I would even go so far as to suggest, that the company change their business model so that they are not reinventing the wheel and providing a product listing site.  But rather add value to other sites, by providing a database and api for serving “Good Guide” ratings.

Who am I to judge though. The Good Guide has a very impressive staff of educational professionals from very prestigious universities.  Maybe I am someone though, because the Good Guide welcomes the community responses on their Idea Board.

All that being said, I still do appreciate the effort and find value in the ratings. Their iPhone app is useful when I need to search for something on the fly. I think their site and app is only something I would hit once in a blue moon when I remembered about it. The “Good Guide” isn’t quite “Good” enough yet to be integrated into my day-to-day lifestyle.