PingMyCompany: Revenge Ratings Gone Wild

I have reviewed other Web 2.0 services here on Profy in which companies could be rated on various criteria. Most of these sites were to rate a company for how "green" they were. Today's site, PingMyCompany, let's you rate a company overall from an employee or potential employee's point of view.

At first glance the site seemed harmless enough. Everyone needs a place to vent their frustration, right? Wrong. Looking through the site there were as many vindictive or tangential rants as there were useful rants and positive feedback.

The site allows you to leave a positive or negative comment about a company, aiming for fair play, I'm sure. The interface is fairly simple, and the site appearance is straightforward and easy to navigate. If you don't see the company you want to give praise or rant about, you can add it with a simple button click.

I like the premise behind PingMyCompany. A resource to help employees avoid bad work experiences with terrible companies, and to steer them toward the best companies to work for is a much needed service. After all, the company is being interviewed by the potential employee as much as the employee is interviewing the company.

The issue that arises with the site is much more one having to do with the site users than the site itself. How can a site be responsible for keeping comments make by commenters relevant without expending too much time and expense moderating the site constantly?

There were on point comments evaluating companies, and scattered among these were the knee jerk "poser" comments and disgruntled significant others wishing they'd fallen in love with less of a workaholic. That kind of personal problem and personality problem is not really something Zigron, Inc., the company behind PingMycompany, should be bound to fix.

I think PingMyCompany is a fun and potentially useful site. Easy on the eyes, it has a quick learning curve. Users are on it rating companies, reading ratings and more in a matter of minutes. I'd like it if it were more comprehensive, but then it may not be as fun. As it stands it is certainly simple to use, fun and useful.