Zite!
What goes around comes around. It's just that sometimes on the go-around, we're not quite ready, til it comes back around.
That may just be the case with Zite, a personalized "magazine" app for your iPad.
The "goes-around" version of this would have been "push" technology, a now-long-ago attempt to use your desktop as a place where you could collect via "push" technology, all the latest and greatest information on the subjects that interested you. You simply signed up for various topics, and information was pushed to you, rather than you going out and searching for it via search engines. (It amazes me how quickly some people can see how to twist our behaviors and stand them on their ends to create a new paradigm, but how slow we seem to often be at picking up on the possiblities.)
Nevertheless, with applications like Zite, "push" information has arrived. "Zite," says its makers, "is a free, personalized iPad magazine that understands what you like and gets smarter every time you use it. Zite helps you discover what you've been missing."
Now, I have to tell you that for years I've been using iGoogle to more or less do just what Zite claims to do, minus the "gets smarter" part. I have several pages of my iGoogle "site" devoted to feeds from some of my favorite sites and news sources. So I get entertainment, politics, book reviews, The Oatmeal and other funnies, fed to me on a daily basis. I just cruise through the way I would the morning paper, getting my news and information from the sources I trust and about the subjects that interest
The big difference with Zite, as near as I can tell, is that it "learns" about you over time. Let's say I put a news feed on my iGoogle home page - but never go and read anything it serves up to me. Where iGoogle just faithfully keeps feeding me that source, Zite would figure out that I'm never reading anything that that newsfeed offers me, and would take action.4.How is Zite different?
"Zite is the first iPad news reader to go beyond manual customization and make use of more powerful technology to provide an individually personalized experience. Your days of wasting time sifting through bad information are over." (From the Zite site.)
Another difference between my manual iGoogle "magazine" and Zite is that Zite serves up most of its content based on both you and "buzz," or popularity. What topics are being discussed on twitter, blogs, and other popular social media outlets? Well, you'll get those subjects served to you via Zite, most likely (if avaialable) from your preferred sources. If, however, your sources aren't "buzzing" the latest hot topic, they're less likely to turn up on your Zite magazine.
Zite is a little Big Brothery in that it pays attention to your Twitter and other social media posts - what are yuou talking about? What are others talking about? This data is aggregated (and yeah, some of that aggregated, though they swear NEVER individual data is sold or shared with "third parties," i.e., marketing firms) and helps determine what makes up your Zite Magazine.
To personalize Zite effectively, "The single most important thing you can do is thumb up or down the articles you read — the more you do it, the better your personalized experience will be. Zite also keeps track of the links you and your friends share on Twitter and the articles you choose to read while using the app."
Like newsfeeds, Zite will refres your content frequently - roughly every hour or so. As topics trend, you'll see changes in what's reflected on your personal magazine.
The more you interact with Zite, the more relevent your content will be - at least in theory. Do you use StumbleOn, or Pandora? You'll know from these systems that if you like what you read or hear, you give it a thumbs up. This teaches the system what you like (based on certain characteristics the song, story, or site is supposed to have, again based on user opinions or tagging), or conversely, dislike, if you give it a thumbs down. So by reading stories, and rating them thumbs up or down, you will ostensibly get content that is more and more tailored to your tastes and preferences. "Over time," promises Zite, "you'll see more of what you want and less of what you don't."
You can share content on your social sites like Twitter and Facebook, or even by email, by simply opening the article and tapping the appropriate button on the bottom right controls. And of course, doing so makes that content even more relevant to you as a user, and gives Zite greater insight into your preferences.
One of my questions is one that shows up in Zite's FAQ section: What's the difference between Zite and my iGoogle page, or Google Reader or any other newsreader? Zite explains, "Zite is different from an RSS reader or Twitter client. Instead, Zite taps into your Google Reader and Twitter feeds to learn about your interests and deliver you content it thinks you'll like." So the difference is, you tell Google Reader what you want served to you and from what sources. Zite learns what you like, and surprises you with things you didn't necessarily expect, but are very likely to enjoy.
I finally got around to this question in the FAQs, which kind of brought me to a bit of a dead stop: "What will happen now that Zite has received a cease-and-desist letter from media companies?
"Above all, we care about you, our user, but publishers' concerns are also incredibly important to us. We're responding to issues and questions raised by publishers because we want them to be happy. Our goal is to work closely with them to give you the best app we possible can. We'll keep working hard to achieve it."
Well, we can only hope so! Though it does seem a little short-sighted on the part of media companies, since it's been demonstrated over and over that moving your content in front of more and more people - who probably otherwise would never have seen it - only serves to get you on that user's radar. And that's a good thing for everyone.
A tip of the hat for this topic to my old friend and techno-mentor, Al Fasoldt, who always knows about the coolest new stuff!
That may just be the case with Zite, a personalized "magazine" app for your iPad.
The "goes-around" version of this would have been "push" technology, a now-long-ago attempt to use your desktop as a place where you could collect via "push" technology, all the latest and greatest information on the subjects that interested you. You simply signed up for various topics, and information was pushed to you, rather than you going out and searching for it via search engines. (It amazes me how quickly some people can see how to twist our behaviors and stand them on their ends to create a new paradigm, but how slow we seem to often be at picking up on the possiblities.)
Nevertheless, with applications like Zite, "push" information has arrived. "Zite," says its makers, "is a free, personalized iPad magazine that understands what you like and gets smarter every time you use it. Zite helps you discover what you've been missing."
Now, I have to tell you that for years I've been using iGoogle to more or less do just what Zite claims to do, minus the "gets smarter" part. I have several pages of my iGoogle "site" devoted to feeds from some of my favorite sites and news sources. So I get entertainment, politics, book reviews, The Oatmeal and other funnies, fed to me on a daily basis. I just cruise through the way I would the morning paper, getting my news and information from the sources I trust and about the subjects that interest
The big difference with Zite, as near as I can tell, is that it "learns" about you over time. Let's say I put a news feed on my iGoogle home page - but never go and read anything it serves up to me. Where iGoogle just faithfully keeps feeding me that source, Zite would figure out that I'm never reading anything that that newsfeed offers me, and would take action.4.How is Zite different?
"Zite is the first iPad news reader to go beyond manual customization and make use of more powerful technology to provide an individually personalized experience. Your days of wasting time sifting through bad information are over." (From the Zite site.)
Another difference between my manual iGoogle "magazine" and Zite is that Zite serves up most of its content based on both you and "buzz," or popularity. What topics are being discussed on twitter, blogs, and other popular social media outlets? Well, you'll get those subjects served to you via Zite, most likely (if avaialable) from your preferred sources. If, however, your sources aren't "buzzing" the latest hot topic, they're less likely to turn up on your Zite magazine.
Zite is a little Big Brothery in that it pays attention to your Twitter and other social media posts - what are yuou talking about? What are others talking about? This data is aggregated (and yeah, some of that aggregated, though they swear NEVER individual data is sold or shared with "third parties," i.e., marketing firms) and helps determine what makes up your Zite Magazine.
To personalize Zite effectively, "The single most important thing you can do is thumb up or down the articles you read — the more you do it, the better your personalized experience will be. Zite also keeps track of the links you and your friends share on Twitter and the articles you choose to read while using the app."
Like newsfeeds, Zite will refres your content frequently - roughly every hour or so. As topics trend, you'll see changes in what's reflected on your personal magazine.
The more you interact with Zite, the more relevent your content will be - at least in theory. Do you use StumbleOn, or Pandora? You'll know from these systems that if you like what you read or hear, you give it a thumbs up. This teaches the system what you like (based on certain characteristics the song, story, or site is supposed to have, again based on user opinions or tagging), or conversely, dislike, if you give it a thumbs down. So by reading stories, and rating them thumbs up or down, you will ostensibly get content that is more and more tailored to your tastes and preferences. "Over time," promises Zite, "you'll see more of what you want and less of what you don't."
You can share content on your social sites like Twitter and Facebook, or even by email, by simply opening the article and tapping the appropriate button on the bottom right controls. And of course, doing so makes that content even more relevant to you as a user, and gives Zite greater insight into your preferences.
One of my questions is one that shows up in Zite's FAQ section: What's the difference between Zite and my iGoogle page, or Google Reader or any other newsreader? Zite explains, "Zite is different from an RSS reader or Twitter client. Instead, Zite taps into your Google Reader and Twitter feeds to learn about your interests and deliver you content it thinks you'll like." So the difference is, you tell Google Reader what you want served to you and from what sources. Zite learns what you like, and surprises you with things you didn't necessarily expect, but are very likely to enjoy.
I finally got around to this question in the FAQs, which kind of brought me to a bit of a dead stop: "What will happen now that Zite has received a cease-and-desist letter from media companies?
"Above all, we care about you, our user, but publishers' concerns are also incredibly important to us. We're responding to issues and questions raised by publishers because we want them to be happy. Our goal is to work closely with them to give you the best app we possible can. We'll keep working hard to achieve it."
Well, we can only hope so! Though it does seem a little short-sighted on the part of media companies, since it's been demonstrated over and over that moving your content in front of more and more people - who probably otherwise would never have seen it - only serves to get you on that user's radar. And that's a good thing for everyone.
A tip of the hat for this topic to my old friend and techno-mentor, Al Fasoldt, who always knows about the coolest new stuff!
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