VentureBeat - Latest Comments in coRank, lets your trusted sources rank your news

Re: coRank, lets your trusted sources rank your news

RBA — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 19:55:35 -0000

Shredder, coRank is not about having friends, but about selecting people whose opinion you value. You may be alone in the world but believe that Matt Marshall (the owner of this blog) is someone whose opinion you value. If Matt was a coRank user, you could add him as one of your sources, and you're done. And don't worry - Matt doesn't need to agree or become your friend, nor even know you exist.

I happen to have met Matt in person but long before that I was already reading his blog. Why? Because I value his opinion. That's what counts in coRank. I'm not saying is a straight-forward process. It takes some effort, but that's how it works.

And again, this is not to say that you cannot add *friends* as your sources, just making the point that your sources don't need to be people who are friends with you. This isn't a new concept BTW. Del.icio.us's "your network" feature is based on a similar principle.

Re: coRank, lets your trusted sources rank your news

Shredder — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 19:44:20 -0000

And what if you don't have any friends? I think that it is funny that everything is about communities and friends and families....and most of the hard core geeky net crowd is so antisocial. ....well I guess anti-social in real life. Maybe these virtual communities can provide all that is missing.
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Shredder

Re: coRank, lets your trusted sources rank your news

Ali — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 19:29:59 -0000

RBA, like I said I was "Off to try it". Thanks for the info though.

One click sounds good.

Re: coRank, lets your trusted sources rank your news

RBA — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 18:07:04 -0000

ALI, have you actually created an account? You can change the "theme" in just one click.

Re: coRank, lets your trusted sources rank your news

Mantari Damacy — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 18:05:38 -0000

They've got the right idea. Use the wisdom of crowds for *finding* content. Crowds are good at that. Use friends or experts or trusted sources for *evaluating* content.

Where evaluating content is not a mass of 13 year olds, this can work out well.

Re: coRank, lets your trusted sources rank your news

Ali — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 17:14:53 -0000

If there is one thing that bothers me is the white background. Anything but white please.

Otherwise nice find and article. Off to try it out.

Re: coRank, lets your trusted sources rank your news

Bubblegum — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 17:00:27 -0000

It's difficult concept since you start off with no sources.

Re: coRank, lets your trusted sources rank your news

celebritypwn.com — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 16:08:14 -0000

It is a nice idea. Its very feature rich as well. But it may be too complex for some to get their feet wet. At this point it'd be foolish for any of us to predict on effective sources and such will be. I personally don't like the idea of friends on a news site like this. It adversely effects story promotion. But time will tell.

Re: coRank, lets your trusted sources rank your news

RexDixon — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 10:49:36 -0000

I think that all the trends - Digg, Social - are currently the model of everyone's new site. It's not a bad thing. Even my latest post here the site was a search engine - but with a twist - Jyve. They bring the social aspect in.

The key is knowing "how much" Digg/Social to incorporate in your site, and then "how much" original thoughts and ideas to put in.

The reason that I "got" coRank was that I saw the "digg/social" --- but I looked past it and tried to see where the originality was.

I guess I learned to tune out the influences from all those years playing in original rock bands; same concept, different art! :)

Rex

Re: coRank, lets your trusted sources rank your news

Zaw Thet — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 16:02:08 -0000

I like the sources concept, still think it's difficult, but it could work. I also think this platform could be very powerful if integrated into an existing social network (myspace) or news front (usa today) where my friends are already set-up. With the myspace news today it seems as if they are also headed that direction.

Re: coRank, lets your trusted sources rank your news

RBA — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 12:13:03 -0000

Zaw, as I mentioned in your blog, here's the thing. If your friends aren't the "submit and/or vote" type, you could still use coRank by selecting active users that either you've identified as people you know (even if they're not your friends), or that you've found to have similar interests to yours - either by looking at the type of stories they're submitting/voting or via the "Like-minded" page under your account (Network tab). That's why when I describe coRank I talk about "sources", not just "friends".

Sure thing, there is no "power of the default" here. It takes some effort to personalize it, and that might slow growth, etc. but again, it's a service for those who feel comfortable spending some time in it.

And of course, nobody argues that Digg works :-)

Re: coRank, lets your trusted sources rank your news

Matt Marshall — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 09:35:55 -0000

I agree with Zaw, it's going to be really tough to rely on my friends/sources selecting content for me on this service because they've got to sign up for it too. First they have to have the bookmarklet that lets them give the thumbs up on a story for me. Then they've got to put in the work, rating each story as worthy or not of reading. Tough proposition.

Re: coRank, lets your trusted sources rank your news

RexDixon — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 06:48:09 -0000

Zaw Thet,

Nice article that you wrote; nice blog you have going. I do hear what you are saying.

My short answer is - Would Pepsi exist if the creators had decided *not* to try to put a similar but yet different product - just because Coke was first?

Rex

Re: coRank, lets your trusted sources rank your news

Zaw Thet — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 04:18:26 -0000

The problem is that I'm not sure my friends are really pro-active enough to post stories that I'm interested in. So will this work?? Digg works(I think) because it has a small yet dedicated group of users that do a lot of tagging/commenting that everyone benefits from.

Re: coRank, lets your trusted sources rank your news

Search EnginesWeb — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 01:29:12 -0000

Both Digg & Netscape are good - but one needs a system where there is less pull by Top Members or Editors and less support by Friends.

Reddit is also good - but their Karma algos are too mysterious and too impersonal

Every story submitted should have equal potential to stand on its own merit

Re: coRank, lets your trusted sources rank your news

Marshall Kirkpatrick — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 21:04:23 -0000

Well written, fair post Rex.

Re: coRank, lets your trusted sources rank your news

michael arrington — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 19:22:20 -0000

silo style continues.

Re: coRank, lets your trusted sources rank your news

Rex Dixon — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 13:53:31 -0000

Confused - Can you explain what you are trying to say? - Rex

Re: coRank, lets your trusted sources rank your news

Confused — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 13:30:59 -0000

Flat trading on first day...