Avvo, the new national online rating service for attorneys, opened its doors last week, not with a beta but with a bang. Founder Mark Britton, a former Expedia EVP, was in Italy when he conceived the idea for an attorney referral service and named it for the Italian word for attorneys, Avvocato. His Expedia colleague, Rich Barton, was also in Italy at the same time where he was conjuring the concept for another Seattle-based rating service, that one called Zillow.
Unlike houses with less than favorable ratings, lawyers tend to talk back. Avvo has already drawn the ire and the fire of a handful of lawyers who feel dissed by the service, even though the demerits are allegedly founded in complaints or disciplinary action by state bar associations.
If enough lawyers feel slighted by lackluster ratings, Avvo could feel the slings of its targeted audience, as individuals or as a class, for defamation or worse. Perhaps Britton should have started with chiropractors or podiatrists as a group, before ranking and rankling lawyers. Stay tuned for our upcoming interview with Britton in ShopTalk.
Web’s First Video-Sharing Father’s Day Spotlights Online Dad-Daughter Duet from Seattle’s Efinancial
The music video posted by Efinancial.com features a stirring ballad entitled “The Little Girl Song” and spotlights photography of dads and daughters from across America. Viewers who watch the video and then follow the credits to Efinancial.com/dad will discover other Father’s Day treats.
The Father’s Day Web page features links to a free FlipFrame online photo display scrapbook that can be placed on a Website or blog, a selection of free Father’s Day Ecards from GreetingCards.com, and a list of the 2007 Top 10 Father’s Day Websites for Web surfers’ interactive enjoyment. Sponsor Efinancial has been picked as one of the Net’s most innovative companies and praised for its “best practices” within the online insurance industry. Efinancial was founded by Michael Rowell to give consumers a big advantage in finding the best term life insurance values for their families. [24×7]
Go nuTsieTM. Get Your Entire iTunes Music Library on Your Mobile Phone
Melodeo Inc.has gone nuTsie, with a new mobile music service that allows consumers to get their entire iTunes library on their mobile phone. The nuTsie free public beta (available immediately at www.nuTsie.com), allows anyone to easily shuffle through all of their iTunes music and playlists in hi-fi quality on their mobile phone or on the Web.
nuTsie allows users to access all of their favorite iTunes music on a wide variety of today’s most popular phone models, with no expensive device upgrade required. nuTsie is built on Melodeo’s proven high-quality, low-bandwidth mobile streaming technology, which means consumers never have to hassle with synching their phone to a computer, downloading music or dealing with limited storage capacity on their phone.
“nuTsie is part of the next generation of music services that will make listening to the stuff you like fun and easy while also taking care of the artists, labels and music publishers,” said Dave Dederer, Vice President of Music Content at Melodeo and a founding member of the GRAMMY-nominated, multi-platinum rock band The Presidents of the United States of America. “nuTsie represents the first mobile music service where everybody wins.” [24×7]
