At Avvo, we spend our days (and sometimes nights) thinking about how we can improve our site, so we can help consumers navigate the often complex legal industry. We’ve come up with a few cool ideas, and we’re feverishly building them. Before we launch them, however, we’d like to run them by real people, like you.

We are currently recruiting a few people to come to our office in Pioneer Square (Seattle) to test new product features. If you’re interested, and you’ve never done this with Avvo before, we need:

1. Consumers, one hour session, Friday, 10/19. Only requirement? You’ve searched online for a lawyer, anytime, on any site.
2. Lawyers, one hour session, Wednesday, 10/17 or Thursday, 10/18

As our thank you, we’ll take care of your parking and send you out the door with a Starbucks Card. Please email us if you can make it. If not, stay tuned for some cool new stuff from Avvo.

I couldn’t help notice the YellowPages-cum-doorstop this morning as I walked past our fire exit up to my office to help consumers find the right attorney at Avvo.

What are you using Yellow Pages for? Email me your pics (conrad avvo.com) and I’ll post the best.

Top 3 again go to the celebrity divorce lawyers associated with the Britney/Kevin custody clash.

1. Sorrell Trope Los Angeles, CA
2. Mark Vincent Kaplan Los Angeles, CA
3. Laura Wasser Los Angeles, CA
4. Barak Romanek Arlington, VA

5. Briteney Mercer Seattle, WA

6. Roni Deutch North Highlands, CA

7. Kent Schaffer Houston, TX

8. Ruth Bader Ginsburg Washington, DC
9. John Browne Seattle, WA
10. Donald Heyrich Seattle, WA

Can user generated content be trusted? The answer to this is perhaps less important if you’re viewing videos on YouTube, photos on Flikr, or sharing updates with friends on Facebook. However, when it comes to medical or legal matters, the question takes on a different level of importance.

The Economist recently published an interesting article entitled Health 2.0 (subscription may be required). In it, they cite a Jupiter study that more than 20% of American internet users have created some soft of health-related content. More significantly, in my opinion, they point to research by the Pew Internet & American Life Project that the upside of health-related UGC outweighs the risks, stating that 1/3 of the people who have looked for health information online say they or people they know have been significantly helped by what they found, while only three percent reported that online advice had caused serious harm. Perhaps more telling, only six percent of the content in the epilepsy-support group on the website Braintalk was factually wrong, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal.

We at Avvo believe that user generated content, such as client ratings and peer endorsements, are valuable to help consumers make an informed decision when choosing a lawyer. And while reviewing user generated content is only one of several steps consumers should take when selecting a lawyer, it’s encouraging to see that research is validating the overall quality of user generated content being published on the web.

Can’t get enough Avvo? Looking to help consumers find the right lawyer?

Now you can get the Avvo search box syndicated to your own site in either a horizontal (468×100) or vertical (144×250) format. Simply cut and paste the HTML code. Find easy to follow instructions and the HTML code at our Link to Us Page.

1. Barak Romanek Arlington, VA. Barak was featured on Mark Britton’s last blog post and at night dresses up in tights with thigh and ab inserts and goes by the name Captain XBRL.

2. Laura Wasser Los Angeles, CA. Apparently it took superhero Captain XBRL to remove Britney Spears’ former Divorce Lawyer, Laura Wasser from the pole position on the Avvo Top 10 Lawyers List after a record three weeks.
3. William Dinkes New York, NY
4. Roni Deutch North Highlands, CA

5. Briteney Mercer Seattle, WA

6. Ruth Bader Ginsburg Washington DC
7. Blair Berk Los Angeles, CA
8. Richard Adler Seattle, WA

9. John Henry Browne Seattle, WA
10. Michael Clark Houston, TX