Thank you for your reply, but I am not sure what I'm looking at. You said it was a list of escrows, but it seems to be a list of BitcoinTalk usernames? Are you suggesting that as an alternative to someone I know but not in person who I don't know I can trust, I choose a complete stranger who I don't know that I can trust?
It is a list of bitcointalk users (people) who are considered trustworthy enough to escrow bitcoin.
How was it determined that these users could be recommended and trusted to be an escrow? What are the requirements they had to meet? Who did the determining? Is there a feedback system in place? Have there been fraudulent users running scams on this list?
These users were determined to be trustworthy by their past actions. They have demonstrated that they can hold a large sum of money without stealing it. There is a feedback system. If you look at the person's profile page, you can see their trust. Clicking on that link will take you to a page where users have left feedback for that person. There have been escrows who, for a long time, were trusted, but became scammers. These people were trusted because they escrowed for a long time, did many trades, and did not scam until a long time later.
Also what does the abbreviation [ANN] mean?
It means Announcement. The ANN thread is where the escrow announces their service and a lot of feedback about them also ends up there.
Are there really no escrow service companies (for bitcoin or for paypal) that someone could recommend? I'd rather trust a licensed company over an individual, even if it means paying a flat rate or percentage.
AFAIK, no, at least, not for multiple currencies like Bitcoin and PayPal. Of course, PayPal itself is also an escrow service.
When doing escrow with Bitcoin, you should also use multisig escrow, especially with large sums of money. This means that in order to send the escrowed funds anywhere, multiple people must sign the transaction. It prevents the escrow from stealing the funds.