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I wonder if personalized news has that much appeal, really. Part of the success of traditional tv, radio and newspapers is the shared experience with some group

by lkozma 16y ago

I wonder if personalized news has that much appeal, really. Part of the success of traditional tv, radio and newspapers is the shared experience with some group you identify with. Incidentally, this is why I read news.YC also, it's fascinating to read what smart people have to say after they have been exposed to the same stimulus like you. With traditional media, this discussion was in the pubs or the workplace the day after. Traditional media is not necessarily dying because the stories are not interesting, well that's the symptom, but the cause is maybe that the group is not one that you feel you belong to anymore, and the content is taylored to the mean of that group anyway.

ynniv 16y ago
The product seems like a shiny interface to a personalized Google News, which as you say is just not very interesting. A word to aspiring news startups: journalism is old and sophisticated - try learning something about it instead of pretending it is a data clustering or personalization problem.
- RobertL 16y ago
  Agreed. When you have new technologies solving old problems what you need to do is use the features of the new technology in new and creative ways to serve the same need that the old technologies were serving. These guys are just using the new technologies to add a few new bells and whistles to the old way of doing things. I think some clever programmer is going to address this market in a totally new and creative way and this will cause a big stir and all the newspapers will finally turn off their tree consuming presses. That said though, I don't think this programmer is going to come from Bing, Microsoft, or any of the big software companies. He will probably be some college kid who, like zuckerman, just has an epiphany one day and then writes the code that solves the problem.
donaldc 16y ago
Part of the success of traditional tv, radio and newspapers is the shared experience with some group you identify with. Perhaps, but most of the reason for the success of traditional tv, radio, and newspapers is that, until the last five years or so, there weren't really any viable alternatives. Only recently has content distribution become a non-issue; previously, it was a bottleneck.
petercooper 16y ago
Yes! You put it very well. I've felt this for a while but not been able to get it down like you have. I'm usually on the "cutting edge" when it comes to things online, new technology, apps, and so forth, but no "personalized news" service has ever stuck with me. It "feels" wrong and I can't put my finger on why. I prefer to just subscribe to a handful of trusted sources and let a human (or many humans, in the case of HN or Reddit) curate what I'll be seeing. I believe, however, that better querying is going to become a big deal and could become a good way to have "personalized" news but without all of the AI and guessing games that seem to take place with clever new personalized news services.

by lkozma 16y ago

ynniv 16y ago

The product seems like a shiny interface to a personalized Google News, which as you say is just not very interesting. A word to aspiring news startups: journalism is old and sophisticated - try learning something about it instead of pretending it is a data clustering or personalization problem.

RobertL 16y ago
Agreed. When you have new technologies solving old problems what you need to do is use the features of the new technology in new and creative ways to serve the same need that the old technologies were serving. These guys are just using the new technologies to add a few new bells and whistles to the old way of doing things. I think some clever programmer is going to address this market in a totally new and creative way and this will cause a big stir and all the newspapers will finally turn off their tree consuming presses. That said though, I don't think this programmer is going to come from Bing, Microsoft, or any of the big software companies. He will probably be some college kid who, like zuckerman, just has an epiphany one day and then writes the code that solves the problem.

donaldc 16y ago

Part of the success of traditional tv, radio and newspapers is the shared experience with some group you identify with. Perhaps, but most of the reason for the success of traditional tv, radio, and newspapers is that, until the last five years or so, there weren't really any viable alternatives. Only recently has content distribution become a non-issue; previously, it was a bottleneck.

petercooper 16y ago

Yes! You put it very well. I've felt this for a while but not been able to get it down like you have. I'm usually on the "cutting edge" when it comes to things online, new technology, apps, and so forth, but no "personalized news" service has ever stuck with me. It "feels" wrong and I can't put my finger on why. I prefer to just subscribe to a handful of trusted sources and let a human (or many humans, in the case of HN or Reddit) curate what I'll be seeing. I believe, however, that better querying is going to become a big deal and could become a good way to have "personalized" news but without all of the AI and guessing games that seem to take place with clever new personalized news services.