Outbrain is delivering a unique service.  If you hadn’t noticed, I added it to this blog here to test things out.  They are delivering a 5 star rating system that anybody can use on their blogs.  The idea behind it is if you liked something, you will give it a ranking from one to five stars.  Here is a little more about their idea behind the project:

We all love how Netflix recommends movies and how Amazon gives us great recommendations for books we would enjoy reading right? Here at outbrain we are doing the same for blog and news content on the web. Information overload is real and growing as the amount of content on the web grows exponentially. We are committed to helping readers of blogs and news sites find the best content that is most relevant to them on a personal basis.

Once you get a few people ranking your work, then they can also be delivered other popular articles that others have enjoyed.  To see that in action, check out Yaron’s blog.  Thus far, I haven’t seen many people come in and rank older works on here just yet but I’ll test it out a ‘bit longer just to make sure.  It is an interesting idea but it is difficult to make any reader feel or think they could or should do something extra.  It is a neat idea and I wish Outbrain the best of luck.