SOMEWHAT FRANK

Rootly Relaunches: Design Much Improved

Rootly, a news aggregator site, has relaunched with new site design and additional features. With the help of Marshall Kirkpatrick who has been guiding Rootly looks much improved. It now looks like a news start-page. 

The new and improved Rootly offers highly customizable RSS feed powered vertical news search based on about one thousand preselected sources plus sources added by users. As a number of users add the same source it gains trusted status and eventually enters the general index. Rootly offers some decent search result feeds as well as internal bookmarking. Additionally, Rootly has added the ability to accept OpenID. The site reminds me of the old version of Topix (minus images) before its recent relaunch.

According to Marshall, Rootly looks to continue to roll out new features which include OPML import - which has a whole lot of implications - and a customizable widget for personal startpages. One thing I would like to see though as they continue to improve is the addition of thumbnail images to each result.

Interestingly, Rootly sent me review request via ReviewMe several months ago and I had to decline. Back then, I just did not find it compelling enough to write about. The UI was terrible and it has some usability issues. I am happy to see Rootly has come a long way and offers a much improved its product.  It is just proof that if you create a compelling product experience  and people will talk about it.

 

Topix Lets The Community Edit the News

Topix, a local news aggregator, has launched a substantial redesign and domain change (from Topix.net to Topix.com). The new design also offers an updated citizen journalistic direction which empowers users to be the editors of the news site. This is the second redesign in the last two years for Topix.
In first visiting the new Topix, users will immediately encounter three options to select from, which include read (news), talk (in forums) and edit (the news). Selecting the read option sends users directly to the news, but the news layout has been tweaked to resemble a blog layout (see screenshots below) which many users have become comfortable with. Users can comment on every story just like a blog. The talk option takes users to the Topix forums which have been increasingly popular since their launch as they generate about 40,000 posts a day on the average. The edit option is a new option which allows users to sign up to be an editor of the site. Once an approved editor in a specific area or topic, a user can create and edit the news site. Vented editors can add content in five different ways which include promoting stories by URL, from the newswire, forums, creating stories from scratch or by emailing tips and photos from your mobile device (just text <zipcode>@topix.net). Taking a page out of the Wikipedia playbook the new Topix tries to keep its editors honest by displaying their editor history.
In talking with Blake Williams from Topix, he expressed that:

"We (Topix) are adding humanity to the site by giving users powerful tools to create and manage the news." 

I would have to agree as the new Topix.net uses a blog-like platform which has proven to be a powerful tool over the course of the last few years as blogs have risen to near the level of mainstream media in reach and exposure. Overall, I was impressed by the bold move by Topix, a total citizen powered site. It will be fascinating to see if mainstream users gravitate towards the opportunity to sculpt the news pages of their local area.

Daylife A New Way To Explore News

Daylife, a New York-based news aggregator with personalization hooks, launched a few weeks ago to offer users another way to ingest the daily news. It brings a new fresh look to a news site. Daylife is backed by many, including bloggers Jeff Jarvis and Michael Arrington but they are not in love with the initial cut of the product. Arrington reported his disappointment by saying:

“What makes Daylife stand out is not so much what it does well, but what’s been left out. There are no RSS feeds, even for your bookmarked stuff. Even worse, there’s no ability for users to leave comments on articles, a feature that has been wildly successful at NewsVine and Topix. And the fact that the front page news is gathered by humans, instead of the algorithmically determined news at Digg, means the company will always have a higher cost of doing business.”

The absence of RSS feeds surprised me since Jeff Jarvis a strong supporter of syndication  (i.e. did the keynote at the Syndicate conference in New York last May) was assisting the startup. However, Jeff has "No disagreement" that feeds should have been added by saying:

"Nature of a startup: some things get onto the boat at launch, others hitch the next ride. RSS was one of the last features to get delayed until a later release; it’s coming. I had subscribed to various of the test feeds and got addicted quickly, so I, too, am eager for them to come out."

So it sounds like they are coming soon and I would imagine the average Jane or Joe probably has not even realize RSS is missing. Regardless, Daylife offers some interesting views of the news including the view that Steve Rubel calls his favorite, the magazine cover feature shown below.

Luckily the product is still in beta, since when I searched for "web 2.0" I encountered a cryptic error message. You can see a screen-shot below of a starred “web 2.0” category. In time this category should pull in content related to this to pic. It will be interesting to see Daylife evolve as it has introduced content personalization offerings within the application by allowing users to start content areas of interest. I just wonder if users think Daylife’s offering is compelling enough to add it to their daily online routine. To find out more information take the Daylife tour. Also check out the Daylife blog for future updates.

Topix Unveils New Design, Search Feature

Topix.net, the news and blog content aggregator, has launched a new fresh design for the layout of its homepage. The design includes a new logo as well as a new layout for the page. The old design is shown below on the left and the new design is shown further below.

In addition to a layout upgrade Topix.net has also released a very interesting historic search sliders that can be accessed by doing a search in the top search box. It appears Topix has been in contact with search guru, Danny Sullivan about the updates and wanted to get them out in time for the Search Engine Strategies show in San Jose. The new slider presents the live web search results for over 1 year. It reminds me of the slider that blog search engine Sphere currently uses to sift through blog search result by date.

These changes come on the heels of the Inform.com deal I highlighted last week. Bottomline: Topix.net offers a more esthetically pleasing product than Inform.com and the redesign amplifies that point.

Topix.net Enters Classified Ad Business

Topix.net, a news aggregator service owned by three large, traditional media companies, has added the ability to post free classified ads on its site. Topix offers a free alternative to both print and online classified newspaper sites, which have been banking on paid classified ads for years. Another direct competitor would be Craigslist, among others.

You can see a screen-shot of the layout to the Chicago ads below. Obviously, the number of ads is limited, however, I expect them to pick up with time.

According to Chris Tolles, who posted on the Topix blog about the classified system and how it fits into Topix mission:

"Our goal here at Topix.net is to help people connect better with their community -- whether that be where they live, or what they're interested in. We started by collecting news from all over the net and using technology to automatically tag it with geo-location and topic."

I am a big fan of Topix.net and the moves that included the introduction of blog search results, mapping conversations and, most recently, a publisher platform. I think this move by Topix.net further hedges the bet of its old media ownership, which has been looking for additional revenue streams due to the decline in print readership. Maybe they should look to Topix because I feel Topix gets it.