Gonzaga University grad Mark Britton, who's CEO of Seattle-based Avvo, has been named to the board of travel site Orbitz.

Orbitz is based in Chicago and is one of the top three web-based travel services. Before starting lawyer- and doctor-rating service Avvo,  Britton was an executive for Seattle-based Expedia.

He is also a member of the GU Board of Regents, which meets in Spokane on Thursday. Britton has a business degree from GU and earned a degree in law from George Washington University in1992.
The Spokesman-Review ran a story about Avvo on June 7, 2007, right after it launched.

Avvo, the West Side blog started in 2007 by Gonzaga University grad Mark Britton, is expanding into ranking doctors.

Avvo, a Latin word for “advocate,” started out and continues as an online forum for people to rank attorneys.

Starting this week, Avvo will offer rankings of doctors, drawing on public records and company research into doctors’ backgrounds and experience.

Both groups, doctors and lawyers, are scored on a 1 to 10 ranking. The rankings result from a variety of measures, but include comments by others.

The available documents being used by Avvo cover 800,000 doctors — 90 percent of the licensed doctors in the country, along with medical question and answer forums.

Britton, a former Expedia executive and general counsel, said the effort has taken about eight months to incorporate the physician data.

Avvo has about 70 employees and is based in Seattle. It makes money through online ads and draws about two million visitors a month. It generates 160,000 referrals to lawyers per month, Britton said.