New aggregation idea catches my attention
I’m going to keep my eye on Thoof, an upcoming news aggregation site, now in beta. It might end up getting taken over by technology wonks (like Digg) or being gamed (also like Digg) — but if not, it could be really useful.
Thoof’s founder, Ian Clarke, is:
obsessed with the fact that even when accurate information exists on the Internet, it often does not have the political impact that it should.“I’m concerned that most Americans still believe that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction,” he said. “All of the information is there, but people are still ill-informed.”
He believes Thoof will provide a way to make sure accurate information can spread, and that he can profit in the process.
That’s from John Markoff, writing in The New York Times on June 18.
This is an interesting twist:
Based on data from comScore, which measures Web traffic, Mr. Clarke estimates that about 1.3 billion pages are viewed daily on news and information sites, generating advertising of roughly $51 million a day. But sites based on user submissions account for only about half of 1 percent of all news viewing on the Web, he said.Thoof is negotiating with an advertising syndicator to put ads on the site based on demographic and behavioral data that the Thoof system will provide about its users.
Technorati tags: news | journalism | social networks | crowdsourcing
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