GPs are to be subjected to online reviews by patients as ministers seek to harness the internet to drive improvements in public services.
NHS users will be encouraged to share feedback on local services, including individual doctors, in an attempt to give the public more influence over provision.
Officials are likening the model to the Tripadvisor website where travellers can share their thoughts, often scathing, about hotels they have visited.
From this summer, patients will be able to comment on local services and provide direct feedback on their GPs via the NHS Choices website.
Childcare providers are to undergo similar scrutiny from parents via a different website expected to be up and running early next year.
The moves were announced as part of a wide-ranging public services reform paper published by Gordon Brown.
"We are ushering in a new world of accountability in which parents, patients and local communities shape the services they receive, ensuring all our public services respond not simply to the hand of government, but to the voice of local people," he said.
In a foreword to the 87-page reform document, the Prime Minister promised an "information revolution", acknowledging the Government had been "much to slow to make use of the enormous democratising power of information".
"People take it for granted that they will access other people's reviews and ratings before buying something on eBay or Amazon, and yet we do not yet have systematic access to other people's experiences when choosing a GP practice or nursery," he said.
"We have clearly got the balance wrong when online businesses have higher standards of transparency than they public services we pay for and support."
