6 ms·

Guess what? Automated news doesn't quite work

29 points by raghus 18y ago

ig1 18y ago
Counter-argument: Google News.
- bprater 18y ago
  Sure, but when you want to know what every other techhead is looking at, TechMeme is the only place to go.
  - AndrewWarner 18y ago
    That's why I don't read Techmeme. I don't want to know what every other techhead is looking at. I want to know what the mainstream techhead missing.
- catone 18y ago
  Counter-counter-argument: http://articles.latimes.com/2008/sep/09/business/fi-moneyblog9 http://articles.latimes.com/2008/sep/09/business/fi-moneyblo... Google News has had issues, too (see link above in which Google News published a 6-year old story this past September). It's the nature of the beast: machines make mistakes. But people make mistakes, too. Screw ups are unavoidable.
ilamont 18y ago
I've been using Techmeme and other algorithmic editors for years, and I think TM is the best of the bunch. The Google Blog search competitor that was released a few months ago doesn't come close -- it's filled with spam and scraped content. I'm curious to see how the human editor improves Techmeme.
bprater 18y ago
I never realized that TechMeme was completely algorithmic. I assumed some of it was, but I thought editors were helping out as well. Color me very impressed!
- zena 18y ago
  I have been using Techmeme for quite sometime and like it a lot. Actually, I was inspired by Techeme's success to start our site: buzzup.com. Our content comes from three sources: users, human editor, and automatic program.
waleedka 18y ago
And Google's recent introduction of voting on search results tells me that they might've reached a similar conclusion.
- henning 18y ago
  According to grumpy SEO people, PageRank and automated algorithms play a far smaller role. Manual human review by Google employees is often the only time a search engine spammer gets taken out.
FiReaNG3L 18y ago
My experience building http://esciencenews.com http://esciencenews.com , which is automated news for science, tells me otherwise. About the 'instantly obsolete' news - just put the latest of the cluster at the top. We see that a lot with shuttle missions to space : see http://esciencenews.com/sources/space.com/2008/11/12/space.shuttle.endeavour.go.friday.launch http://esciencenews.com/sources/space.com/2008/11/12/space.s... In the cluster ('More sources from other sites') you can see the mission`s coverage from start to finish. As for bad grouping, just accept that you won't be able to find ALL stories belonging to a cluster and set your cutoff to accept the minimum of false positive while keeping the most stories belonging to a cluster.
- codeismightier 18y ago
  Cool. One feature that I wish that you would add is RSS feeds for each sub-topic. Other than that it looks great.
  - FiReaNG3L 18y ago
    There is already; http://esciencenews.com/syndication http://esciencenews.com/syndication I just noticed the topic pages still link to the main rss though, will change that as soon as I get back from the lab!
    - aaronblohowiak 18y ago
      Your site is very well done. I will be returning soon.
- brandnewlow 18y ago
  Hey FiReaNG3L, I've been scratching my head about this for a while. Over on eScienceNews, some of your news items are full stories. Some are just summaries. When I follow your source links below the full stories I find sites offering summary-only RSS feeds. How are you getting the full versions of those stories? Are you scraping the HTML from the feed item URL?
brandnewlow 18y ago
One could always set up a hot-or-not style site where people indicate if two news items are similar or not and have that input feed in somehow.
- sgibat 18y ago
  Or how about just automation + up and down voting?
thorax 18y ago
Surely I'm not the only one who liked TechMeme exactly as it was and never saw a major issue with it. I think it's actually great just as it is. Who runs into those issues where articles are bad? If I compare it to how Google News started out, this is lots better-- I have TechMeme bookmarked and only visit Google News when I'm search for news.
crsmith 18y ago
I thought Techcrunch made a good point that even though it might only be a small change in what appears as news, it's a huge change fundamentally. I prefer Techmeme to stay fully automated.
GavinB 18y ago
On the other hand, you can get hilarious mixed messages like this set of headlines on the front page right now: http://i35.tinypic.com/1z3cv1h.jpg http://i35.tinypic.com/1z3cv1h.jpg CNET: They're selling out? Business week: No one wants them any more? Apple 2.0: It's definitely one or the other!

29 points by raghus 18y ago

ig1 18y ago

Counter-argument: Google News.

bprater 18y ago
Sure, but when you want to know what every other techhead is looking at, TechMeme is the only place to go.
- AndrewWarner 18y ago
  That's why I don't read Techmeme. I don't want to know what every other techhead is looking at. I want to know what the mainstream techhead missing.
catone 18y ago
Counter-counter-argument: http://articles.latimes.com/2008/sep/09/business/fi-moneyblog9 http://articles.latimes.com/2008/sep/09/business/fi-moneyblo... Google News has had issues, too (see link above in which Google News published a 6-year old story this past September). It's the nature of the beast: machines make mistakes. But people make mistakes, too. Screw ups are unavoidable.

ilamont 18y ago

I've been using Techmeme and other algorithmic editors for years, and I think TM is the best of the bunch. The Google Blog search competitor that was released a few months ago doesn't come close -- it's filled with spam and scraped content. I'm curious to see how the human editor improves Techmeme.

bprater 18y ago

I never realized that TechMeme was completely algorithmic. I assumed some of it was, but I thought editors were helping out as well. Color me very impressed!

zena 18y ago
I have been using Techmeme for quite sometime and like it a lot. Actually, I was inspired by Techeme's success to start our site: buzzup.com. Our content comes from three sources: users, human editor, and automatic program.

waleedka 18y ago

And Google's recent introduction of voting on search results tells me that they might've reached a similar conclusion.

henning 18y ago
According to grumpy SEO people, PageRank and automated algorithms play a far smaller role. Manual human review by Google employees is often the only time a search engine spammer gets taken out.

FiReaNG3L 18y ago

My experience building http://esciencenews.com http://esciencenews.com , which is automated news for science, tells me otherwise. About the 'instantly obsolete' news - just put the latest of the cluster at the top. We see that a lot with shuttle missions to space : see http://esciencenews.com/sources/space.com/2008/11/12/space.shuttle.endeavour.go.friday.launch http://esciencenews.com/sources/space.com/2008/11/12/space.s... In the cluster ('More sources from other sites') you can see the mission`s coverage from start to finish. As for bad grouping, just accept that you won't be able to find ALL stories belonging to a cluster and set your cutoff to accept the minimum of false positive while keeping the most stories belonging to a cluster.

codeismightier 18y ago
Cool. One feature that I wish that you would add is RSS feeds for each sub-topic. Other than that it looks great.
- FiReaNG3L 18y ago
  There is already; http://esciencenews.com/syndication http://esciencenews.com/syndication I just noticed the topic pages still link to the main rss though, will change that as soon as I get back from the lab!
  - aaronblohowiak 18y ago
    Your site is very well done. I will be returning soon.
brandnewlow 18y ago
Hey FiReaNG3L, I've been scratching my head about this for a while. Over on eScienceNews, some of your news items are full stories. Some are just summaries. When I follow your source links below the full stories I find sites offering summary-only RSS feeds. How are you getting the full versions of those stories? Are you scraping the HTML from the feed item URL?

brandnewlow 18y ago

One could always set up a hot-or-not style site where people indicate if two news items are similar or not and have that input feed in somehow.

sgibat 18y ago
Or how about just automation + up and down voting?

thorax 18y ago

Surely I'm not the only one who liked TechMeme exactly as it was and never saw a major issue with it. I think it's actually great just as it is. Who runs into those issues where articles are bad? If I compare it to how Google News started out, this is lots better-- I have TechMeme bookmarked and only visit Google News when I'm search for news.

crsmith 18y ago

I thought Techcrunch made a good point that even though it might only be a small change in what appears as news, it's a huge change fundamentally. I prefer Techmeme to stay fully automated.

GavinB 18y ago

On the other hand, you can get hilarious mixed messages like this set of headlines on the front page right now: http://i35.tinypic.com/1z3cv1h.jpg http://i35.tinypic.com/1z3cv1h.jpg CNET: They're selling out? Business week: No one wants them any more? Apple 2.0: It's definitely one or the other!