Vanno Releases Company Reputation Widget

(MoneyWatch)  When we last checked in on Vanno, the San Francisco-based start-up that has built a web-based index for measuring corporate reputations, my focus was on its model of providing a social evaluation platform where users can collectively and quantitatively build an authoritative index of company reputations.

Vanno enables users to share personal stories or news articles about a particular company, as well as fill out surveys and add comments about companies. Vanno then applies Bayesian algorithms, which are often used to detect spam or credit card fraud, to convert all of this user-generated content into an index measuring corporate reputation.

Currently, the index tracks over 5,800 companies around the world.

Today, the company released the code that allows anyone with a receptive interface to embed a company reputation widget.
An example of how you might use this would be to track the reputation hit that Kellogg took after dropping its sponsorship of Michael Phelps in the wake of his Pot-Smoking-Photogate. Vanno, which is self-funded, seems to be claiming one of those unique niches in web publishing where something as elusive and intangible as a brand's reputation can be tracked in real-time. Launching the widget, which is free, guarantees that Vanno will extend its reach beyond its home site throughout the web.

(Note: When I originally posted this article, I inaccurately described Vanno as Colorado-based. It is not. It is based in San Francisco. My bad.)