Buzzway Inc., and emerging company based in Silicon Valley, just announced the release of an online service that aggregates trending topics across news sites. The technology scans the internet and listens for newly-published articles. It prioritizes news articles using metrics such as popularity and reach. In real-time and through the company's clean web site, users can track trending stories evolving throughout the day.
In addition to displaying trending stories, the technology internally collects data from news sites as topics evolve. News stories typically follow a cycle from origination all the way to obsolescence. The company's technology follows stories each step of the way, uncovering interesting insights. Initial findings show an increase in the influence that bloggers have in breaking news to the mainstream. Last month, for example, bloggers originated over 21% of stories that evolved into news stories covered by the mainstream. This number shows an increase from 17% in May when outside events related to the death of Osama bin Laden dominated headlines. The mainstream media covered these events heavily with bloggers having less influence in the news cycle.
Other findings released by Buzzway show that blogging influence varies between news categories. In technology, for instance, bloggers started 34% of stories that were ultimately picked up by the mainstream news sites covered by Buzzway. In world affairs, though, that figure decreases to 11%. These numbers are higher in areas not covered as deeply by the traditional media. Buzzway plans to increase its data collection efforts to include dozens categories by the close of 2011.
One cannot overestimate the effect that recent technologies such as internet and smartphones have had on society. In the span of just over a decade, internet usage has exploded from millions to billions. Over that period the number of web sites online has grown exponentially. Just in the last few years, social networking sites including Facebook and Twitter have added a combined total of over a billion users. In short, society has become more connected than ever. Information has become much easier to find but more difficult to filter.
Such difficulties present and opportunity for technology to solve. While solely focused on filtering through news for the time being, Buzzway sees the opportunities expanding in the upcoming years. In communications, for instance, Buzzway could use its technology to help people prioritize text and/or email messages. In the context of social networking, the technology could be used to filter social news feeds. This would help users find only relevant status updates quickly and efficiently.
iAutoblog the premier autoblogger software
No comments:
Post a Comment