Just wondering what would be the net benefit of using such a tool. If I have trust system providing me a rating to all the info I am reading, how would it help me?

I'll never just judge content based on its rating. For instance, someone posted/said something thought provoking. I don't like what was said. But then that same person has a high rating based on my web of trust. What benefit has that brought me? I simply don't care about the rating, I don't like what was said.

The only way this can be useful is if a whole community uses the same algorithm, and the ratings appear the same for every user in the community. But then again, I think this would be scary for humanity, as network effects will form around certain algorithms.