The Little Green $

Two days ago I posted a quick poll on the Cyndi's List Facebook Page. The question for the poll was, "When you see a green $ at the end of a link on Cyndi's List:..." with the following three possible replies:

1. It is clear to you what it means
2. You have no idea what it means
3. You wish there was also text in the description to tell you what it means

255 people replied: 205 understand, 35 don't, and 15 want a text description. My purpose in asking the question was to help me determine how much work I really need to do when I write a description for a link. I had hoped that the green $ at the end of a link would make things so clear that I wouldn't have to do much more. But 13% of the people who responded don't understand the $, therefore I need to always clarify things in the written description for the links.

And what does the little green $ mean? It means that the link points to a commercial web site that may charge a fee to use the site or to view certain search results and/or digitized images on the site. And no offense is intended toward my genealogy friends outside the United States by using the dollar sign. I assume it is a symbol that is widely recognized worldwide.