A Look At Failed Social Networks

Many social networking sites have come and gone, though it's easy to forget about most of them with monsters like Youtube and Facebook acting like they are the only kids in the classroom.  Social networking online began with a site called Six Degrees which basically invented the social-circle networking guidelines that are used by so many sites today.  It was named after the popular six degrees of separation theory (which I believe was invented by Kevin Bacon…).  More experimental than anything else, the company that made the site grew to a little over 100 employees and was eventually bought for quite a large sum of money.

Since then, many have tried to replicate and improve upon the success of that social networking site.  Some have gone on to make their inventors Man of the Year, but others have fallen into the gutter of floppery.  Taking a look at some of them can provide some insight into what is needed for a successful social networking site.  (Details after the jump…) Continue reading “A Look At Failed Social Networks” »

The New New York Times Website

In looking over our data for this year's Newspaper Report due out later on this month it’s easy to see American newspaper studies are in dire straights. With subscription rates falling and more people getting their news online newspapers have had to revamp their old business model. No American newspaper seems to be taking a more proactive attitude towards the threat of the web then The New York Times. Just yesterday The New York Times launched the Beta version of what they are calling The New York Times Extra. This view allows users to browse related articles and blogs from outside news sources (see below). While it may not sound like much  this represents a huge change for a site that just a year ago charged users $50 a year to access parts of their site. New York Times extra comes on the heels of a Facebook push by the Times, an ad campaign that came under some criticism in the blogosphere. While the Internet may still give newspaper industries pause, it’s good to see some embracing the options for content, access, and ads that the Internet has to offer.

Techmeme: News Automation Doesn’t Work

<Cross post from our ImpactWatch blog>

I am a big fan of the tech news aggregator Techmeme as well as its politically focused sister site Memeorandum (not so much the gossip focused WeSmirch).   Both sites use complex algorithms to discover and group new content in real time.  I read both sites on a daily basis as a way of getting a sort of Cliffs Notes summary of what is going on in the tech and political blogosphere on a given day. 

Anyone who reads these sites frequently is all to aware of the limits of the site’s automation algorithm.  Content that is only tenuously related is often grouped together.  The lead story on a given topic is sometimes the least important story on the topic.  The point of the news that is being broken is often missed.  The example below, which shows a story about Anna Nicole Smith being hospitalized as the lead story instead of one about her being dead, shows the just one of the kind of problems automation can bring. 

Techmeme founder Gabe Rivera explained the gist of the problem in a blog post yesterday:

Any competent developer who tries to automate the selection of news headlines will inevitably discover that this approach always comes up a bit short. Automation does indeed bring a lot to the table — humans can’t possibly discover and organize news as fast as computers can. But too often the lack of real intelligence leads to really unintelligent results.

In an effort to provide better results, Rivera has hired a human editor to augment the his site algorithm.  About the decision, he writes:

Early on, when our system was less technically refined, the clearest path toward improvement involved simply iterating algorithmic development. Later, as the automation reached a certain degree of maturity, we recognized that direct editing could now improve news results by leaps and bounds. Though our roadmap contains a number of novel future algorithmic enhancements, introducing editing now appears to be a no-brainer.

Through our ImpactWatch media monitoring platform, we’ve done a lot of work on automation versus human review.  Indeed, in many ways the challenges we face on are more difficult than Techmeme since ImpactWatch does sentiment analysis as well as categorization.  After a great deal of trial and error on ImpactWatch, we’ve come to the same conclusion as Rivera: the best way to analyze and organize news is through a combination of human editing and automation.  Automation can get you part of the way, but ultimately if you really care about the quality of the analysis some sort of human editing is necessary.

To learn more about ImpactWatch, please sign up for our demo.

Using Digg to Your Best Advantage

Utilizing Digg can be one of the best ways to generate large amounts of traffic to your site or blog, however, before you start getting your hands dirty remember, regardless what social media application you use, the biggest thing you can bring to the table is value.

This applies to Digg.

Social news sites, like Digg, are a long-term investment not a quick solution. Building a following on any social media application can take some time and requires dedication and a little patience.

That being said, one of the greatest strengths of social news sites like Digg is their longevity and the opportunity available for a lot of exposure.

When you Digg something, it stays on Digg, unless it gets buried (see the value thing I was talking about). You never know who may come across your submission and decide to Digg it. They may share that article with their friends, who in turn my start Digging it.

You can see the potential for long-term growth.

If you are new to Digg, here are some tips to get you started.

1. Network and make friends – Friend Digg users who post links that match your interests.
2. Friend Digg users who submit links that match your own interests.
3. Make yourself stand out by choosing a strong avatar.
4. Don’t regurgitate other people’s content – doing this can put you in danger of being banned.
5. Use a good title and description with your submissions– grab the reader’s attention.
6. Be sure to leave a comment on the articles you Digg.
7. Just as you share your submissions with friends, be sure to Digg links they share with you.
8. Don’t spam your keywords – Digg members will see right through this and bury your links.
9. Try Digging upcoming stories or articles with only a few digs – other Diggers will appreciate this and it helps get you noticed.
10. Subscribe to Digg’s RSS Feed – this will help you keep tabs on what the Digg community is interested in.

Remember Digg is a community. Bring value to the Digg community by sharing interesting news and you’ll begin to see your submissions start popping up on the front page.

What suggestions would you add to this list?