Rank System is First to Evaluate Quality of Freelance Services Without Bias

Pittsburgh, PA – January 27, 2009 – Guru.com, the world's largest online marketplace for freelance talent, introduced a Quality Score-based Rank system today to remove guesswork from the task of finding a reliable freelancer. The company is now the only services marketplace to apply proven business performance metrics to the online ranking of its service providers. The proprietary solution aims to become the de facto standard by which the worth and quality of freelance talent is measured, online or off.

In the traditional business world, success is often measured by an organization's ability to build new business, generate revenue and maintain ongoing relationships with clients over time. These three fundamental elements – Customer Acquisition Rate, Customer Earnings Rate, and Customer Retention Rate – are therefore hallmarks of a leading enterprise. Guru.com's Quality Score-based Rank is the application of these core performance measures in order to make it easier to select the highest quality freelance talent.

Users rely on website rankings to guide decision-making. While a "top rank" position implies excellence, the expectation of highest quality may prove false if the factors used to calculate rank are unclear, subjective, or based solely on size. By relying on quantifiable business data, Guru.com's Rank simply reports the true position of one freelance business performance among others in the same skill category, so that the best and most capable talent can be identified with ease and assurance.

"Online rankings often place undue emphasis on quantity as a core indicator of value; but quantity alone can be a misleading measure in the freelance services marketplace," said Inder Guglani, CEO and founder of Guru.com. "In order to assure that Rank sets a true and unbiased expectation of quality, all aspects of performance must be considered objectively on a per customer basis. As such, Quality Score-based Rank uniquely marks a fundamental shift towards greater accuracy in reporting freelancer worth."

Empowering the Services Marketplace
Guru.com's Quality Score-based Rank supports the growth of the online services marketplace by inspiring professionalism on multiple fronts. Reported Quality Score data gives freelancers greater control over their Rank position by providing critical insight on business strengths and weaknesses. Freelancers may use their Quality Score data and Rank as an informal performance review to gain guidance on long-term career and business development objectives. As the Quality Score-based Rank holds the independently-employed accountable to the same performance standards as any traditionally operated business, potential employers gain greater comfort and trust in the credibility of individual service providers as well as the services sourcing model itself. And with the use of per customer Rank calculations introduced, small scale freelancers may now genuinely compete with larger vendors on the simple basis of best quality.

A core component of Guru.com's recent innovation suite, the Quality Score-based Rank supports the creation of a fair and free market for freelance talent. The innovation suite uses data validation, performance metrics and business transparency features to create a neutral platform on which top freelance talent may compete equally and openly. Prior features in the suite included feedback management and premium bidding options which both give proven performers a competitive advantage in winning project contracts while making it easier for prospective employers to identify their best talent match.

Guglani concluded: "With the Quality Score-based Rank in place, Guru.com now provides the public with the best intelligence available in the industry for accurately estimating the expected performance of any given freelancer. By reporting genuine proof of merit, our platform directly addresses reservations about the capability and worth of freelancers so that new users may feel more secure in exploring the advantages of the services sourcing model."

About Guru.com:
Guru.com (www.guru.com) is the world's largest online marketplace for freelance talent. Founded in 1998, Guru.com connects businesses with freelancers specializing in over 160 professional categories including the following: website design, programming, graphic design, business consulting, and administrative support. Employers seeking professional expertise locally, nationally, or globally get quotes from freelancers on their contract work for free.