All rating systems at the end of the day are fallible. Would you expect Zagat to completely predict whether or not a given restaurant is right for you? No. Just because a wine scores high in Wine Spectator doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to enjoy it. Just because Google shows a few URL’s first doesn’t mean they are the best ones (or even contain accurate information). But are they better than no information at all? You bet.

Anyone who thinks they can do a better job creating a rating system in an opaque industry is welcome to start a competing effort. And people are welcome to critique various rankings. But enjoin such a service? This smacks of someone being very, very afraid that some new light is being shown into a dark space where none existed before.

This is hardly an incidental post – this type of issue was highlighted in John Cook’s PI blog just a little earlier with regard to the class action filed against Avvo today.