Newsgrape blends Reddit and Google News-style features for the ultimate social news stream

Newsgrape blends Reddit and Google News-style features for the ultimate social news stream:
Newsgrape has rolled out a substantial update to its social news streaming platform, and it now combines community voting similar to Reddit, with so-called “smart filtering” similar to Google News.
Just to give you a brief overview of the company, Newsgrape was founded in Austria by Felix Häusler and Leo Fasbender back in 2009, raising its first funds ($16,000) through Kickstarter, followed by a seed round of $150,000 from investors across Europe and Yushan Ventures, to launch the next stage in its journey in June this year.
Since then, the startup has brought on board some experienced advisors, such as Roman Scharf, CEO of Talenthouse. There’s also now a mobile-optimized ‘Slim’ version of Newsgrape for smartphones.
So what, exactly, does Newsgrape do?

Newsgrape offers its users a personalized news stream, which now combines articles that are currently trending on Twitter and articles that are performing well on Newsgrape into a single stream. Co-founder Fasbender says that this marks a “hugely important step” in Newsgrape’s design, as it’s striving to connect high-quality user-generated content with traditional media. Fasbender adds that it’s setting out to change the way people “experience, share and distribute written content on the Web”.
Fasbender says that it’s analyzing almost a quarter of a million articles each day from a growing number of sources, as it tailors its content to match the personal interests and preferred sources of users, while ranking articles according to their performance on Twitter and the activity inside Newsgrape.

Setting up

My one small gripe with Newsgrape is the signing-up process could be a little more straight forward. Firstly, it asks for your preferred interface language, for which I selected English. It then asks for your preferred article language, for which I tried to select English, but this option was greyed out.

It transpires you can actually skip this option, but given there is a big asterisk next to it, this gives the impression it’s a compulsory field, which really confused me as to how I was meant to proceed…surely it can’t expect me to select another language which I cannot speak?
Anyway, once you’ve connected with Facebook, Twitter or Google+ during the sign-up process, you have to select the topics that interest you most…technology, soccer, sport, health, US Election and so on.

So Newsgrape surfaces hot stories…that’s nothing new in itself. But what the platform also enables is actual user-generated content, with members able to create articles from scratch.

So what, ultimately, Newsgrape wants to be is an all-encompassing information stream that reels in news from the likes of the BBC, alongside content from anyone with an itchy keyboard finger:
At the time of writing, there is very little on the user-generated content front, however. When you filter by ‘User-Created’ there is only a handful of articles.
Forgetting this for now, what Newsgrape offers readers is a stream of information that combines news, facts (linked through to the Wikimedia database) and opinions or blogs. And for writers, it lets them publish directly into the system, with comments, views and votes determined by the platform and marked beside each article – only the top-performing ones appear in the global stream.

Interestingly, bloggers that use WordPress can tap a feature that connects and syncs their blogs – an actual link connects the two, even allowing for comments to be mirrored between the two pieces (optional).
“I believe in a world where information is free and available for everyone. Our mission, therefore, as we defined it early on, is to make information free and globally accessible, both online and offline,” says Fasbender. “We live in an era of constant information overload, and platforms like Facebook or even Google cause a growing threat to information freedom by filtering content not according to the relevance of the particular information, but according to parameters that are solely driven by sales and click-rates. This is not how information should be distributed and is one of the reasons we develop Newsgrape.”
It’s still early days for Newsgrape, and we’ll be keeping an eye on these guys. Meanwhile, you may also want to check out NJuice, which is a similar service in that it mines Twitter and Facebook to surface the top trending news stories, while NewsWhip Spike is more of a professional-level product for tracking the world’s most-shared stories.
➤ Newsgrape
Image Credit – JEAN-PIERRE MULLER/Getty Images

Box updates its OneCloud mobile product with 100 new apps

Box updates its OneCloud mobile product with 100 new apps:
Looks like Box isn’t done making announcements at its second annual Boxworks conference. Today, Chris Yeh, Vice President of Platform told the audience that its OneCloud service has just been updated to include more applications that will help users be more productive while on the go.
Four months ago, Box introduced OneCloud to the world with 50 partners. As TNW reported earlier, OneCloud enables people to integrate productivity apps that they prefer with Box’s cloud service. This falls in line with Box’s vision that you can work from anywhere and from any device. The service is available on Android and iOS devices and has played a big part of Box’s innovation.
Today, Box is rolling out an update that includes 100 new applications that OneCloud supports. Not bad for a service where 50% of their traffic is generated from the mobile space. And since its launch, 37% of Fortune 500 companies are using it.
Yeh shared that the OneCloud ecosystem consists of a variety of applications where the most popular ones are document editing, note taking, file management, PDF annotating, scanning, and diagramming-related. The new apps are more vertical in nature, enabling users to be more creative and productive in their use.
Image credit: Box

As of today, developers can let you try subscription content before you buy it in their Google Play apps

As of today, developers can let you try subscription content before you buy it in their Google Play apps:
Google developers now have the option to offer a ‘try before you buy’ period for subscription content in their Google Play apps. Google launched in-App subscriptions back in May of this year, but up until now developers could not let you try the subscription out before you committed to it.
Now, they can use the Developer Console to set a number of days (7 or longer) that you can try out the subscription content before the billing goes into effect. That period can be changed at any time so they don’t have to re-issue apps to the market.
Any developer can set up these trial periods that will automatically convert over to a full-on subscription once the period ends.
Here’s how Google explains the trial period system:

To take advantage of a free trial, a user must “purchase” the full subscription through the standard In-app Billing flow, providing a valid form of payment to use for billing and completing the normal purchase transaction. However, the user is not charged any money, since the initial period corresponds to the free trial. Instead, Google Play records a transaction of $0.00 and the subscription is marked as purchased for the duration of the trial period or until cancellation. When the transaction is complete, Google Play notifies users by email that they have purchased a subscription that includes a free trial period and that the initial charge was $0.00

Users have had the ability to try out Google Play apps for a while now, as they can get refunds within a short period of time. Offering a structured version of that for subscription content is a great idea, as is allowing developers the ability to set the period themselves.
This should result in a boost of signups for content from those who doubted whether it was worth a full period’s fee just to peek and see. Getting users hooked on good content will be easier and, as unfortunate as it is, we often have a tendency to forget we’ve subscribed to things and continue paying for them, so this could end up being an unintended boost in subscription levels in that regard as well.

The chink in Twitter’s armor or: Why it wants to have its own video service

The chink in Twitter’s armor or: Why it wants to have its own video service:
If you wanted to come up with a battle plan for taking down Twitter, you could probably distill it into two words: target celebrities. The most influential Twitter users are celebrity names like Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Kay Perry, Rihanna, Britney Spears and Taylor Swift.
Combined, celebrities comprise 8 of the top 10 slots on Twitter’s most followed charts (we’re leaving the President out of this one) and account for almost 188M followers. Doubtlessly, a bunch of those followers are overlapping, as all of the celebrities in the top 10—aside from Kim Kardashian—are music stars.
So, if you’re a service that wants to come up against Twitter on its home turf, where do you attack first? You go after those bigtime users and offer them something that Twitter does not: a coherent platform that allows them to own their content and control their branding.
The best example I can give you of a company doing this currently is the celebrity-friendly WhoSay. Launched in 2011, WhoSay has proven to be insanely good at getting celebrities on board with its Twitter+photos+videos+social offerings that present a coherent way for them to ‘communicate’ with fans.
WhoSay doesn’t seem to be after Twitter’s market, at least not currently. It collects posts from Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and more and filters them through its console. Think of it more like a Storify for celebrities that are interested in telling just their own story. But it does provide the template for a celebrity-friendly service.

You might argue that it’s unlikely that Justin Bieber isn’t going to stop using Twitter with 22M+ fans that he can use to leverage his next album sale, and you’re probably right. But there’s nothing saying that he, or any other celebrity with a large following, wouldn’t use an external service like WhoSay where they own the content, get watermarked images automatically, branding control and analytics tools and merely post into Twitter.
Note that I do not see App.net as a prime candidate for this kind of action, the success or failure of that platform will not depend on having a massive number of users. A clearer candidate could be the still-pivoting Heello, or another still-silent contender.
In the early days of Twitter, celebrities used whatever photo or video upload service was available, like Twitpic or Twitvid. Eventually, Twitter took control of its photo workflow by launching its own service through Photobucket, and just recently made all third-party services persona non-grata. When WhoSay launched, it offered an alternative that allowed branded photos and videos (you’ll note that they have small copyright watermarks added automatically as well), as well as a bundling of media from other platforms.
And it’s attracting some big Twitter users. Rihanna and Shakira are both top-20 followed and are using WhoSay to aggregate their pictures and video. There are dozens of other big film and movie stars using the service as well, and they likely drive a ton of traffic to WhoSay.

And that’s not to mention people like Lady Gaga who are ambitious enough to start their very own social networks for posting images and consolidating fans.
And don’t think that Twitter hasn’t noticed this trend. It knows just how important celebrity usage has been to the growth of the platform so far and you can bet it’s looking into ways to make its service more friendly for them.
Twitter has been hard at work revamping its profile pages, crafting #Hashtag pages to collect media around events and firing up brand pages for…well, brands. These pages collect images posted to Twitter’s official image service as well as those tweeted out from Instagram. They feature Twitter’s slick expandable Cards and space for personal branding.

Now imagine a celebrity-focused version that aggregates photos from its own service, videos from its upcoming service (Twitter just acquired video startup Vine), and offers a way to display those beautifully in a custom layout. And, if they’re piping in media through their own services, they could offer a watermarking option for celebrity accounts (or any account for that matter).
Obviously, controlling its own media services does more than just satiate celebrities. It  also gives them the ability to craft products around photos and videos that it can predict the formatting, delivery and reliability of. Of course, this also means that video uploading apps are likely on the way out of Twitter’s official apps, just like their photo uploading brethren.
Completing the video side of its media puzzle makes a lot of sense for Twitter on multiple dimensions. It can use it to craft new celebrity friendly products, offer coherent media display for brand advertising and slice out one more piece to its control puzzle so that it can move forward with its media platform plans.

Zappos Recommends Products That Match Pinterest Boards

Zappos Recommends Products That Match Pinterest Boards:

Pinterest may have revolutionized the way the world finds and shares ideas on all things fashion, but the site has yet to refine the way people actually buy those items they pin.
Zappos is trying to bridge that gap with the launch of PinPointing - a companion tool for Pinterest.
PinPointing is a service that recommends Zappos products based on different Pinterest pins and boards. Users open PinPointing, enter a pinner or board name and PinPointing recommends Zappos products that are similar so they can easily purchase that product. The idea is based on magazines or stores who often urge customers to "shop this look" -- showing celeb outfits or…
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More About: online shopping, pinterest, retail

Internet use in Asia up 14% in 2012 as online population passes 1 billion: Report

Internet use in Asia up 14% in 2012 as online population passes 1 billion: Report:
Asia now makes up 45 percent of the world’s Internet users with an estimated penetration of 27 percent, according to a new study from We Are Social Singapore. The group estimates that the continent’s Internet users now number 1.03 billion, up from 909 million at the end of last year.
We Are Social’s figures are compiled from a number of official sources, though these kind of numbers should always be taken with a dose of skepticism.
According to the study, South Korea leads among Asian countries in terms of Internet penetration with 83 percent of its citizens online, while also having the fastest average connection (15.7 Mbps). Japan came in second with an estimate of 79 percent, while Myanmar placed dead last with use 1 percent.

As for sheer raw numbers, China has the largest Internet population in Asia with 538 million netizens, followed by India with 121 million. We Are Social believes that 102 million new users have come online in Asia this year, a gain of 14 percent.

The study also notes that the continent spends a collective total of 1.7 million years  online every month. Social media penetration is believed to have reached 21 percent, slightly lower than the global average.
We Are Social estimates Asia’s Facebook userbase stands at 229 million across the 24 markets tracked. A recent study from Socialbakers pegged the social networking site’s reach at 242 million, although its figures include more countries.
Asia continues to go mobile, with an estimated total of 3.1 billion subscribers. Smartphone users are believed to number roughly 844 million.
We Are Social has plenty more fascinating numbers in its report, including a country-by-country breakdown, so check out the Slideshare embed below or head to their site to dig in.

We Are Social’s Guide to Social, Digital and Mobile in Asia (2nd Edition, Oct 2012) from We Are Social Singapore

Header image credit: Thinkstock

Deezer expands its music platform to 160 countries, launches free service to match Spotify

Deezer expands its music platform to 160 countries, launches free service to match Spotify:
Celebrating its first birthday in the UK, music streaming service Deezer today announced that it has expanded availability even further worldwide and will now be available in 160 countries, updating its website and mobile apps and taking its service free to match its more high-profile rival Spotify.
At an event in London’s Abbey Road Studios (the very same studio made famous by The Beatles), Deezer CEO Axel Dauchez unveiled his company’s latest attempts at reducing levels of piracy and getting people to enjoy music beyond the MP3.
It all starts with its launch in a further 76 countries throughout Africa, the Middle East and Asia, now operating in more countries than any of its music-streaming rivals. However, if you live the US, there will still be no Deezer for you. “We are not going to the US. One day, but not now. The market is not ready,” remarked Dauchez.
Noting that the music industry experienced a “60 percent drop because of piracy,” Dauchez said that it was “time to liberate the music, and rebuild the value of the music industry.” With that in mind, Deezer has made it its mission to “bring music to every country and bring local artists to a worldwide audience.”

Dauchez showed off the company’s new homepage and website features, highlighting its enhanced Facebook integration, top user recommendation and how it uses local editors to recommend music in specific countries.
Users can also create featured playlists, which when submitted are screened by editorial teams and posted up for other users to engage and share. In a move to take back market share from Last.fm, Songkick and Spotify, Deezer will also recommend local concerts and festivals, connecting users with their favorite artists at local events.
The company’s updated iPhone application was demoed on-stage, showing how users can now access their friends’ recent played tracks, favorite artists and playlists, increasing social sharing not only on mobile but across the Web.
All of this, of course, comes after Dauchez confirmed earlier in the week that Deezer had closed a $130m funding round from Access Industries, which he believes will become “a cornerstone investor in the company.”
Commenting on the funding, the Deezer chief noted: “What we did today, we did with $20 million funding. Can you imagine what we can achieve with the money we raised today?”
It looks as if much of the funding will be spent on sustaining a free streaming model in countries around the world. Dauchez was quick to point out that a free model would not be sustainable in the long run and would only serve as a way to get users to sign up for subscriptions.
In its press release, Deezer explains its plans for the free service:

[We will] launch an international free service alongside global marketing campaigns that will include involvement in local music life through events and partnerships to raise brand awareness. The free service will be a recruitment channel to encourage free service users to convert to paid subscription, rather than a model in of itself.  It will be shaped for each individual country according to the competition.

However, he did note that money would be spent on highlighting the service in local markets, which will see the company on-board users via its carrier deals and free services, then push upgrades.
Spotify now offers a free service to users, serving as a taster for its full service, which now boasts more than 20 million tracks. Deezer is pursuing the same model, constantly refreshing its service to appeal to users all over the world.