GoodGuide just launched their food product ratings. Milk, baby food, meat, pasta, and juice ratings, to list a few. Plus articles on sugar, cows, and artificial coloring, among others. It’s good stuff: a great next step for GoodGuide and a great new resource for everyone.
Those guys are the people to watch in the crunchy consumption space and, quite possibly, the people to support. They have excellent academic connections; Silicon Valley loves them; and, most importantly, in my opinion, they want to do something totally improbable, and they’re going for it.
As a potential competitor of theirs, however, I do think they’re crazy. I think it’s dangerously ambitious of them to try to become the trusted expert on aggregate crunchiness, and I think it’s a bit presumptuous of them think that their uniquely expert analysis and arrangement of imperfect data is going to deliver something totally trustworthy. But, regardless, they’re awesome.
The fundamental difference between GoodGuide and The Carrot Project is that GoodGuide offers GoodGuide’s opinions on which brands and products are crunchiest, and The Carrot Project offers a collection of many experts’ opinions on which brands and products are crunchiest.
I say we’re being necessarily humble about the information available and necessarily agnostic about the many and often-conflicting aspects social and environmental responsibility. They say they can and will figure it all out and, thus, make it that all-important next level of easy for a consumer to make a choice.*
We’ll see.
I wish GoodGuide the best of luck as they grow and adjust. I pledge my support in any way I can give it (by writing partially congratulatory, partially critical blog posts maybe?). And I look forward to stealing all their users someday.
Or something like that…
*Note: They don’t actually say this, though I have discussed this and lots more with them. If I’m misrepresenting you guys, Ryan and Dara and anyone else over there that might be reading, let me know.