SNIP
>The benchmarks, thats a greyer area. I think that benchmarks should be allowed to be published, but... it almost seems to me, that there should be some regulations in that area. Making the published numbers more credible somehow seems like ... hmmm, dunno yet. My jury's still out on that one.

Mike,

In theory the marketplace is the judge for credibility.
Take Consumer's Report for instance. They've been doing (the equivalent of) "benchmarking" for years, but it is their track record that keeps them alive.
There are a few respected labs in our business with similar records.

Any benchmark that was poorly done would likely get creamed quickly by all sorts of related interests and not necessarily the product maker first.