Angie’s List might be a better name than “Local Service Recommendations List”, but my title is more descriptive.

We first met someone from Angie’s List years ago at a consumer affairs conference.   I was skeptical when she explained the concept because it didn’t seem that consumers would pay to have someone else rate services for them.

We’ve obviously seen since then what happens when ratings and rankings run amuck.  Even the Federal Trade Commission had to get involved.

But the whole key to Angie’s List, and this is what makes it so awesome, is transparency.

We wrote about Angie’s List a long time ago when doctors started challenging them.   Some members of the medical community apparently thought it was okay to get ratings and rankings on plumbers or electricians, but they didn’t like being under the same microscope.

Later, we praised a local hair salon and threw an air conditioning company under the bus. Yep, Angie’s List reported to them what we had said.  Now think about this for a minute.  If someone is willing to go on the record and say a company was good or bad, isn’t that a pretty good indicator of how serious they are.

We think you should absolutely buy an Angie’s List membership to receive the magazine in the mail and free ratings for whenever you need help.   There are now more than 1 million local service reports and more than 1,000 new reports are being added every day.

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