There is one area that I can think of, where the recommendation of _some_ 'experts' can very useful: medicine. It is extremely difficult to find a competent physician. Medicine as is generally practiced is often about drastic procedures like surgery, pills etc. which worsens the overall condition of the patient and often results in huge bills. There are various contributing factors, some of which are not in the physician's control - but the end result is always the same - a really bad deal for the patient. 'Silent' recommendations can often lead to some renegade physicians who are great at treating people but may be at odds with the physician's board. All what I said hold true for dentists also: the truly good ones are very few.

Medicine is a tricky area (it is close to religion in this aspect).

Well, agreed...

Im not sure I understand how you intend to do that: the silence problem is that the majority of experts don’t post their recommendations, right? Even if you have their names from linus, how will you get their recs

Email is the first step. I'll have to find another way if that doesn't work :D

OT: I checked your profile but couldn't find an email to contact you. It'd be cool if I can shoot an email once in a while to brainstorm.