What’s the problem we’re trying to solve?

Well, there’s nothing wrong with search that might bring the Web to a halt. Although companies like Google and Yahoo! are battling it out to be the first to enable relevance on the Web – they’re failing miserably as they fight to build user profiles in the hope that it will help them deliver more meaningful search results.

Unfortunately, this won’t happen in our lifetime based on their methods – for example, how often is your search based on travel and how often is it likely to be for the same thing?

Furthermore, they are unable to tell you if a particular site complies with industry standards, adopts best practices, or follows a code of conduct before you enter a Web site.

Some users might be happy to wade through all the search results before they find a site that ‘looks’ like it ‘could’ be trusted. But how do you know which ones to trust? Some users may feel a little more comfort in using a site if it promises to comply with an industry standard such as accessibility, or best practice such as privacy statement, or follow a code of conduct for e-commerce.

Some users may only trust sites that have been vetted by an independent authority to guarantee that the information provided is trustworthy enough to rely on it. For example, if you conducted a search on treatment for a particular illness, how do you know which Web sites to trust? Wouldn’t it be great if you could get this information from search results?!

How do they work?

Like the title and description of Web sites, Content Labels can be read and utilised by search engines and browsers to display more information about a Web site in search results.

This extra information can be presented to end users in the form of an icon beside each search result. In the example below, an icon with a red x represents a site that doens’t have a Content Label. The green tick highlights Web sites that have been independently verified for whatever conformance claims they are making.

In this instance, the Web sites have been audited and certified by Segala for accessibility compliance. Clicking on an icon would display a screen with the conformance claims made by the site owner.