Consumers now have the ability to rate and recommend all that the Island has to offer through a new website called thumbsupbermuda.com.

As the name implies, the site aims to recognise high quality businesses while helping Bermudians, residents and visitors choose anything from a new cellular provider to a restaurant for dinner.

?We wanted to create a fun website where people can go and offer constructive criticism to businesses around Bermuda,? said Carlos Smith who founded the site with Mary-Ann Simmons, Karim Faid, Chiwun Smith and Danielle Carswell. ?We are also trying to provide an easier way for customers to find good quality businesses. If you don?t know which mailing company to go with, or where to go to dinner or what hotel to stay in maybe you want to see what everyone thinks about it. You can go online and see some feedback,? he said.

The feedback comes in the form of ratings and reviews submitted by individual consumers who log onto the site. The easy-to-use site is already causing some controversy since it seeks reviews whether the experience was fantastic or not. There are currently a number of ratings on the site that are substantially less than two thumbs up.

However, Mr. Smith said that whether the rating is good or bad, the goal of the site is to offer constructive criticism. He wants businesses to see the reviews as a way for them to actually see how their company is doing in the eyes of the public.

?Businesses can go online and look at the reviews from the consumer to see the positive and negative comments so they can gain feedback on how to improve their company or if the company is successful,? said Mr. Smith.

While reviewers can remain anonymous, the webmaster does require all reviewers to register their real name and e-mail before they can write a single review.

While they are not monitoring the site on a full-time basis the reviews are published on a real time basis Mr Smith said the webmasters will take down any comments that are deemed to be of a discriminatory or of an offensive nature.