I once toured the Good Housekeeping Research Institute in New York. It’s the lab where scientists, engineers, and nutritionists test products and award the famous Seal of Approval. It was established in 1900 and it’s a very professional institution.

What the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval did for a century, we do now. We, the people who go online. One quarter of the whole world. We’re the crowd that is sourced. We’re the source that makes the platform open. We are the peers in peer-to peer. Our reviews are the new advertising. It’s a Pro-Am world.

Peer reviews are pure, instant, on-the-record word of mouth. I may be slower than you, but I didn’t understand the weight of peer reviewing when Amazon.com introduced it to the masses. Later, an arc light turned on over my head—reviewing is the customer at work.

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