Trust is becoming a keystone for industry and society. In business, trust accelerates transactions by reducing the need to insure against deception. In the professional services, trust ensures matched standards between seekers and providers. Trusted recommendations help citizens choose tradesmen, doctors and helpers. And trust is at the heart of the sharing economy, which encourages access over ownership.
Web search engines, like Google and Bing, have transformed our lives by providing fast and targeted access to information. But these search engines are not effective at finding individuals for trust-based relationships: employees, consultants, advisors, skilled workers and day-to-day services. The demand for trust-based search is stronger than ever, but technology has yet to meet that demand.
Our solution is Irix, a trust-based search platform for finding the people we need by recursively harnessing the trusted contacts between individuals. Selecting on the basis of trust will have broad impacts on how business and citizens fill roles. Irix will benefit recruitment in firms, credibility in the professional services, and the livelihood of skilled workers. It will help citizens make better decisions in the services they choose.