WorldofGood.com is eBay's new do-gooder shopping portal. I
haven’t been that attuned to the latest happenings in this ecommerce niche but
a new eBay product definitely makes me look twice.

A few minutes on the site and I quickly gathered that it seems well designed and friendly. Still, I can't help but feel a little disappointed. The fact that a company like eBay is stepping into this area could be a real legitimization of what might otherwise be considered either a fad or a really small retail niche. What eBay could have done was signaled that social attributes of products are important enough for everyone to consider when they are buying a product. Instead, WorldofGood.com seems very much in line with, rather than a departure from, some of the existing green commerce sites like EcoSeek or Greenzer, among others. To be clear: there's nothing really wrong with that, except that it continues to work within a paradigm that assumes only people who regularly buy handmade drums from Indonesia really want any social info about the products they buy.
Of course, the site has just launched and it may evolve into much more than what it suggests right now. On the positive side, the labeling system that the site employs is valuable and transparent, breaking things down into 'People Positive', 'Eco Positive', 'Animal Friendly' and 'Supports a Cause'. Along with more specific attributes within each of these categories, the system really captures the social value of most any product out there. Plus, these labels do a great job of giving consumers clarity on exactly what is good about the products they are buying rather than making them take it on face value just because something might be made of bamboo.
Similarly, WorldofGood.com put into place something they call 'Trustology', which is essentially a marketplace for third party validation of the various businesses in the value chain that bring the product to your door; from the producer to the seller. That may be confusing to some, but it provides real transparency and real value.
All in all, I think these labeling systems are what are most interesting about the new site. After all, people couldn’t choose to eat healthy until labels were placed on foods. Same goes here.





