Segment7: Finding Random Reading

Finding Random Reading

drbrain@segment7.net (Eric Hodel) — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 20:13:43 -0700

I’m really missing what reddit used to give me, which was things I liked to read that I didn’t know I wanted to read on the front page. Now reddit is full of dups and political stuff I don’t care about. It also has a recomendation feature never worked for me, I couldn’t tell the difference between it and the home page.

Google News solves the dup problem but has too much stuff I don’t care about. Sometimes it makes me laugh, but it still doesn’t tell me what to read, or even what I probably will like.

The recommendation service I love is Netflix’s, I’ve rated over 350 movies now and it is spookily good at picking movies I like. For example 11:14 has a silly-sounding plot summary:

Five seemingly random story lines intersect at precisely 11:14 p.m. in this innovative drama-thriller written and directed by newbie filmmaker Greg Marcks. Even though they’re strangers, Buzzy, Mark, Cheri, Jac and Eddie will become a part of one another’s lives—even if it kills them.

I forgot why I added it to my queue. When it arrived I thought it would be silly, but I really enjoyed it, and that wasn’t the first movie I’ve experienced this with. Also, it tells me to watch things like Afro Samurai and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy that I would never hear about or know about otherwise.

What I really want is Netflix for for my random web reading. I don’t care about what’s popular, I care about what is well-written and interesting. Does this kind of thing exist yet?

Until then, I think I’m going to switch to clicking wikipedia’s Random article button when I get bored.

"Finding Random Reading" by Eric Hodel

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 20:00:19 -0700

David: I don’t think stumbleupon is at all usable on Safari, and I can’t stand using Firefox for more than about 5 minutes.

"Finding Random Reading" by Joe VAn Dyk

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 06:35:49 -0700

One of my friends had an idea where you could pick out some people that you thought were smart and interesting. Those people could select articles that they liked. And then you could see those articles.

Sort of like starring something in Google Reader and then having other people be able to see what you starred. Combining that concept with a netflix-like rating algorithm and that might solve your problem.

Ideally, you could ask the system for the top 100 articles that it thinks you would like best. Then, there’s a finite number of stuff for you to read that day (if you want).

"Finding Random Reading" by David

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 05:09:04 -0700

Have you tried StumbleUpon?

"Finding Random Reading" by Eric Hodel

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 00:18:05 -0700

So far Wikipedia is winning.

"Finding Random Reading" by Jordan

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 22:43:07 -0700

I agree. Although, at least Reddit still has stories. Digg’s front-page has become a picture gallery.