PROVIDING DECISION SUPPORT BASED ON PAST PARTICIPANT PERFORMANCE WITHIN AN ELECTRONIC MARKETPLACE ENVIRONMENT

An electronic marketplace system (10) operates on one or more computers that collectively facilitate marketplace interactions between one or more first participants (12, 14) and a second participant (14, 12). The system (10) receives feedback as to performance of the second participant (14, 12) from the first participants (12, 14) based on their interactions with the second participant (14, 12). The system (10) associates a participant-specific rating with the second participant (14, 12) based on the feedback received from a particular first participant (12, 14), the participant-specific rating of the second participant (14, 12) being specific to the first participant (12, 14), being independent of feedback received from other first participants (12, 14), and being stored in a profile maintained for the first participant (12, 14). The system (10) accesses the profile maintained for the first participant (12, 14) in response to an identification of the second participant (14, 12) as a potential partner for the first participant (12, 14) as to a potential interaction. According to the participant-specific rating of the second participant (14, 12), the system (10) provides an indication to the first participant (12, 14) reflecting the desirability of interacting with the second participant (14, 12) with respect to the potential interaction.