Coworkers.com Announces Improved Review Management Features

Coworkers.com has improved its review management capabilities by allowing users to more easily dispute and exclude unwanted reviews.



“One of the strengths of our review platform is that it allows for the creation of detailed, and optionally anonymous, reviews. While this offers our users the ability to give and receive unbiased feedback, it is also open to occasional misuse. Seeking to better address this, and in listening to feedback from our users, we have simplified the process for excluding such unwanted reviews from a users profile.” explains CEO Jonathan Clay. “Should a user receive a review that does not seem legitimate – for example an anonymous review that seems like ‘spam’, they can simply login and “dispute” the review with a single click. After the user enters a reason (for example, ‘erroneous’ or ‘excessive’), the review will be excluded from their profile, and its rating will no longer count toward their aggregate score. In addition, a user can report a disputed review to Coworkers.com if it appears to violate our TOS.”

Clay goes on to say “since our ‘soft launch’ (beta release) last year, we have been listening closely to our early adopters, as well as knowledgeable business advisors, trying to find the right balance between information freedom and protection against derogatory information in the delicate area of work reputation management. We believe that we now have a solution that is fair and effective for all parties concerned. By restricting disputed reviews to premium (paying) members, we are acknowledging the fact that abuse can occur and minimizing its impact, without sacrificing the principle that honest information about people’s work histories should be accessible.” Professional reviews are just one of the many workplace performance tools offered at Coworkers.com. Review a colleague, or request feedback today.

Feature Update: Site Stats & Data Page

Our new Site Stats & Data Page is live! Think of it as a dashboard that tracks the cool stuff happening across the Coworkers.com network of users. From this page you can check out:

• Fun facts like: Average review ratings; averages by gender; averages by signed or anonymous rating; highest and lowest rated profiles; and more
• Top keyword searches on the site
• Top companies represented on the site
• Most sent Zingers
• Most viewed Forum threads

We'll also be highlighting a power-user profile as "Coworker of the month". Site Stats & Data is a great addition to the site. It allows our users to get a quick overview of what's hot, and how they can get more out of the aggregate data on the site.

New Feature: Zingers! Instant email feedback

Want to give a coworker some quick feedback, but don't have time to enter a full review, or want to keep it private? We have the perfect solution - send them a Zinger! Just write a short note, or browse through our categories of pre-written messages. Click send, and your colleague will be Zingered instantly by email!

New Feature Coming: Forum!

We have a new Forum feature, not fully rolled-out on the site yet. So, friendly blog reader, please go check it out!

http://www.coworkers.com/forum

Feedback & new forum posts will be greatly appreciated.

Feature Update: Improved 'Review Averages' Display

When viewing a person's profile page, the rating summary in the upper left hand corner now offers more detail regarding how the rating has been calculated. The layout now does a better job at displaying the three types of reviews one can receive, and how they influence an average rating:

1. "Signed": a review submitted by, and identified with, a registered user of Coworkers.com
2. "Anonymous": a review by a registered user of Coworkers.com, who has chosen not to be identified
3. "Unverified": a review that was created by an unknown person, not logged in as a user of Coworkers.com

Feature Update: Added "Share With a Friend"

So, you saw a cool/funny/interesting profile on Coworkers.com, and you thought to yourself, "gee, it would be nice to share this cool/funny/interesting profile with my friends who appreciate cool/funny/interesting stuff, but I'm too lazy to switch to my mail editor and write a message?" No problem! You can now just click on the "Share" link, tweak the message if you like, enter your friends' addresses, and presto! - they'll get your message right away. You can thank us later.

Feature Update: Streamlined "My Coworkers" Page

"My Coworkers" is the dashboard to your account on Coworkers.com. We've recently made some updates to streamline the presentation of information available on this page. It's now even easier to:

• See your public profile link
• Create a badge that links to your profie
• Get a snapshot of your account settings with ability to make edits
• See an overview of review activity
• View a summary of your watchlist

Login and check it out.

Introducing Snap Shots from Snap.com

We've just installed a little tool on the Coworkers.com blog called Snap Shots. It enhances links with visual previews of the destination site, interactive excerpts of Wikipedia articles, MySpace profiles, IMDb profiles and Amazon products, display inline videos, RSS, MP3s, photos, stock charts and more.

Sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while other times it lets you "look ahead," before deciding if you want to follow a link or not.

Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out. If you absolutely hate it, let us know and we'll consider its fate.

Feature Update: Coworkers.com Badges

Looking for a cool addition to your home page, blog, online resume, or email signature? By simply inserting a couple lines into your HTML source, you can quickly display one our "badges" wherever your like... you can even show your Coworkers rating inside any web page! Each badge links directly to your public Coworkers.com profile page. Just go to our "Tools" page, login, and get your code.

Feature Update: Enhanced Profiles

We're busy making refinements to the overall Coworkers.com user experience. We are pleased to announce some recent refinements to the way Profiles are presented. Improvements include a more prominent highlighting of the overall rating, and quick links to options for the profile.



This is just a taste of some of the updates coming in the weeks ahead. Thanks again to all of our users. We'll keep you posted as other stuff goes live.