We’re changing the name of our Firefox extension and we’d like to solicit your help in return for the opportunity to feel good and win an iPod Touch at the same time.

The current working name is ‘Search Thresher’ which I’m sure you’ll agree, is too much of a mouthful.

In order for you to win, your nomination must be used in full. Even if we decide to use your nomination in part, you won’t win. This is mainly because we’ve already thought of lots of names using terms you’re likely to think of, but perhaps in a different combination. If you come up with a name that we’ve already thought of and we decide to go with it, then obviously you’ll win.

So, we need to ensure this little competition is transparent and in no way, open to interpretation. This is especially important because bloggers are a sceptical lot and I’m certain some of you already think that this is rigged in some way

How to enter

Either drop us a comment on this post, or write a blog post of your own. If you decide to write your own post, please ensure to use a trackback so we get to see it. That’s it.

Closing date

25th January 2008 – so get moving.

Some background to help you out

Today, search engines provide the title and description of Web sites in search results, with prominence given to the highest bidder, not the most relevant or most trusted. Wouldn’t it be useful to know, which Web sites conform to industry standards and best practices without having to visit each site to find out? Wouldn’t you sometimes like to know which Web sites are accessible, child friendly, mobile friendly, endorsed by a qualified medical authority, or follow best practices for privacy and copyright?

Millions of Web site owners already demonstrate their conformance and commitment to standards and best practices by displaying a Trustmark on their Web site. However, search engines don’t provide this valuable information in search results.

Consumers have come to expect content labels on the back of products in the supermarket, as they provide information about the suitability of their contents. Sometimes the labels are relevant and sometimes they’re not, but everyone at some point uses them. Some people use them all of the time.

Segala is helping to bring the same concept to the Web using a new method of classifying and labelling content. Funnily enough, the method is called Content Labels.

A Content Label is a file that contains Metadata on steroids. It’s this Metadata that search engines and browsers can now use to provide more meaningful information in search results.

So, now about the Firefox extension

Segala owns a Firefox extension that reads Content Labels and does exactly what I’ve explained above. The screen shot below should give you an idea for how it annotates Google to highlight Web sites that have a Content Label. In short, red x means there is no additional information. An amber tick means the Web site owner is making a claim about their own Web site. A green tick means a trusted third party has independently verified the Web site owner’s claim.

There’s plenty more that the extension can and will do as we launch monthly builds from next month, but that should be enough information to get you thinking about a new name.

The extension is being endorsed by the W3C and is one of four applications used by the W3C Semantic Web Education and Outreach Special (SWEO) Interest group, to help demonstrate a real implementation of the Semantic Web.

Hint

Here are some keywords to consider: Trust, Security, Reliable, Relevant, Suitable, Appropriate, Semantic Web, Better Discovery.

Keywords you should not consider: censorship and filter.

Ideally the name will contain one word and a maximum of two.

You can make as many suggestions as you like. So, get going and suggest some names now. Good luck and thanks for helping out

Check out the early-stage concept browser and have a play.