Onlife

Good and bad days make no news and are soon forgotten. But the best or worst moments in you life are memorable, worth mentioning and indeed ranking. The same applies to books and DVDs, restaurants and hotels, sofas and lamps, jokes and quotes. We love ranking because it’s fun and because it takes away the unpleasant doubt that accompanies every daily choice. It’s a mental-energy short-cut that can make you laugh (“what’s the most embarrassing thing Bush ever said?”) or get you through the roundabouts of life more smoothly. “This is the best fridge you can buy for that price” doesn’t get any straighter ( http://www.pricerunner.co.uk/ ). Ranking used to be done with friends in a pub or other social occasions, but the Web is clearly the perfect arena for the ranking aficionados. They can go global, harness whole databases and never miss a niche of interest. Web ranking has transformed the word of mouth to a word of mouse. And with the ease and transparency of the web, there emerges a soci