Zopa and "The Wisdom of Crowds"

I've been looking at two websites much too often lately:
The first
is ZOPA, the first P2P borrowing/lending network, brought to you by the folks who brought you EGG, the UK's first online bank.

The important thing is that this network replaces a bank with what a bank would be if it was invented today, i.e. a network that brings together borrowers and lenders and allows borrowers to seek capital in a marketplace and it allows lenders to seek an investment. All with minimal regulation (they devote a fair amount of time to identity and security).

The second
is Google's first disclosure of their interest in predictive networks. They entitle their post "Wisdom of crowds" after Surowiecki's book of he same name.

The point is that maybe collective predictive markets are more powerful than we think ...