Starting Points: TechMeme

Apr 5, 2010

Aggregators help media professionals keep on top of digital content trends | Media | The Guardian

The internet is not like trying to drink from a firehose but rather like trying to drink from Niagara Falls. For any media professional trying to remain up to speed on digital content trends, it is often overwhelming. I've had to develop a lot of methods and constantly change the tools I use to manage this torrent of information. I've mentioned Popurls before as an easy one-stop shop to follow internet buzz, and once registered you can personalise the site to show your favourite digital content sites first.

You can log into Popurls using your user name and password from several other services such as Google or Yahoo. You can create your own Popurls sharing page and automatically post items you share to Facebook, Twitter or Friendfeed or mini-blogging sites Tumblr or Posterous.

However, if you don't want to take the time to personalise Popurls, there are a number of aggregators that pull together a great sample of digital trends. Sites such as Original Signal are good if you want a single page to have a quick glance at sites covering web 2.0 developments, such as TechCrunch, GigaOm, Mashable and ReadWriteWeb. There is a North American bias to a lot of the content because most of the aggregators operate from there, but it's a good start for a filtered view of the web based on the interests of a digital media professional.

Image via CrunchBase

These sites cover the world of web 2.0 with great depth, but if your interests are even more specific, you may want to check out the aggregator Alltop. It takes Popurls to the next level, not just featuring buzz and top-level topics but aggregated pages from sites and blogs covering a wide range of subjects. For instance, you can quickly find blogs and sites covering such specialist topics as web analytics, virtual worlds, rich internet applications or mobile. You can even filter Alltop based on location.

The newest addition to these media news aggregators is also the newest addition to the popular TechMeme family, MediaGazer. TechMeme uses an algorithm and human editors to filter tech stories that are generating conversation. MediaGazer takes the TechMeme model and focuses on media coverage, and it has a very good transatlantic spread, at least in terms of English-language media reporting.

Aggregators are just one way to manage information but, with a little tweaking, they can help the flood of information seem more manageable and relevant.