Quality Rater

What powers complex search engines like Google? Sure, they’re built around detailed algorithms, but their real power comes from Quality Raters. Employed by third-party contractors who work with search engines, Quality Raters work from home evaluating and ranking search results. Thanks to this job, when you search for pictures of fuzzy kittens, that’s exactly what you get.

As a Quality Rater, you spend your work time at your computer. Often, quality rating serves as a part-time or secondary job to your primary occupation. Your goal as a Quality Rater is to read a search query, view the results presented by the search engine, and determine how relevant they are to the user’s search terms.

You might spend half an hour ranking image search results, and another half hour comparing lists of links from competing search engines to see which offers the best content. The computer tracks your progress to ensure that you work quickly and efficiently.

While you’re ranking results, Quality Raters around the world are, too. When Raters disagree, you must revisit the search results and come to a consensus on the usefulness or uselessness of a particular link.

Not only do you make results more relevant for searchers, but you also protect them from spam and offensive content. Teachers searching for images to show their classes certainly don’t want porn results. By flagging inappropriate content, you keep it out of top results and bump the best links to the top. Think of yourself as a Policeman of the Internet.