1. A computer-readable medium storing a computer program for use in conjunction with a web browser client program to rate a web page relative to a selected characteristic, the program comprising: first means for identifying natural language textual portions of the web page and forming a list of words that appear in the identified natural language textual portions of the web page; a database of predetermined words that are associated with the selected characteristic; second means for querying the database to determine which of the list of words has a match in the database; third means for acquiring a corresponding weight from the database for each such word having a match in the database so as to form a weighted set of terms; and fourth means for calculating a rating for the web page responsive to the weighted set of terms, the calculating means including means for determining and taking into account a total number of natural language words that appear in the identified natural language textual portions of the web page.