Amazon offers lawyer ratings

Sound off the wall that Amazon will be offering lawyer ratings alongside Martindale-Hubbell? It’s been rumored around here in Seattle for years. Well, A9, an Amazon owned search engine, has launched in beta form its own yellow pages (Seattle search for optical) that, among a ton else, allows users to review and rate service providers.

Once you click on the results of your yellow pages search you can submit additional information about businesses displayed, including giving the business or service a review. Amazon user ratings will be a real value add compared to the yellow pages. I loved Amazon from the get go because I wanted to know what others like me thought of a book I was thinking of buying.

Martindale-Hubbell is working hard on its local search so as to provide greater value to its lawyers.com small and medium law firm customers. Expect them to improve their offering in that regard. At the same time, look for Amazon to give Martindale-Hubbell a run for their money in the ratings of lawyers for consumers and small business people.

Probably would have shocked leaders of Barnes & Noble and Borders if someone told them in 1995 that a stock broker named Jeff Bezos was going to sell books on the Internet and dwarf them in a few years. It should not shock anyone to think of Amazon being the source of ratings for small and medium sized law firms within a few years.