Usury v2.0?

InformationWeek tells about the application of online, eBay-style peer-to-peer loans, pioneered by two new companies. Not being a particularly smart finance guy, I think the idea seems good in theory, but not sure how it breaks out in practice. Any finance weenies add some insight? I guess at the very least I'm excited about another site I can waste time on while pretending to be productive...