Ask HN: review Feedspike

#1

Post by AlexRodriguez » Mon, May 11, 2009, 9:12 PM UTC

http://www.feedspike.com

Feedspike is a news feed aggregator. The entire premise of the site is to feature stories that highlight short-term search trends. The site is an automated service that reads from a continuous stream of syndicated content from major news organizations including CNN, MSNBC, ABC News, Reuters, Associated Press, and a myriad of other sources. Top rising search terms from Google are matched with stories from news feeds in real-time automatically. Matches between stories and search terms that have the greatest search volume are placed on the front page. This matching process brings to the surface stories that are becoming increasingly popular. The site is designed mainly for people with a great appetite for real-time information.

Re: Ask HN: review Feedspike

#2

Post by babyshake » Mon, May 11, 2009, 9:34 PM UTC

The next logical step would be to show a timeline of how sources pick up a stories, so you could determine who is getting the best scoops.

Re: Ask HN: review Feedspike

#3

Post by AlexRodriguez » Mon, May 11, 2009, 9:52 PM UTC

babyshake wrote: post #2

The next logical step would be to show a timeline of how sources pick up a stories, so you could determine who is getting the best scoops.

Yes. Several of the feed sources we read from publish a headline with barely anything to say within the article, then as the info comes in to them, they republish the same story, each time with minor changes in the headline and adding more meat to the story. The Associated Press is notorious for this. That's how they beat everyone else to the punch every time.

Re: Ask HN: review Feedspike

#4

Post by jmonegro » Tue, May 12, 2009, 12:12 AM UTC

Your algorithm seems like it's well made, though I have not taken a close look at it's capacities yet. My suggestion: get a better interface. You're competing with similar websites such as http://www.newspond.com

Re: Ask HN: review Feedspike

#5

Post by AlexRodriguez » Tue, May 12, 2009, 2:49 AM UTC

jmonegro wrote: post #4

Your algorithm seems like it's well made, though I have not taken a close look at it's capacities yet. My suggestion: get a better interface. You're competing with similar websites such as http://www.newspond.com

The ui is really nothing special, but that is by design. We want it to work with JavaScript off and to be easily crawled so that Googlebot understands the structure. Spiders and crawlers have yet to catch up with the times and still have difficulty finding their way through sites that use JavaScript for navigation.

Re: Ask HN: review Feedspike

#6

Post by jmonegro » Tue, May 12, 2009, 8:57 PM UTC

AlexRodriguez wrote: post #5

jmonegro wrote: post #4

Your algorithm seems like it's well made, though I have not taken a close look at it's capacities yet. My suggestion: get a better interface. You're competing with similar websites such as http://www.newspond.com

The ui is really nothing special, but that is by design. We want it to work with JavaScript off and to be easily crawled so that Googlebot understands the structure. Spiders and crawlers have yet to catch up with the times and still have difficulty finding their way through sites that use JavaScript for navigation.

Alright, one nice feature would be to build an API so I could, for example, list content from a certain niche on my website.

Re: Ask HN: review Feedspike

#7

Post by AlexRodriguez » Wed, May 13, 2009, 6:51 PM UTC

jmonegro wrote: post #6

AlexRodriguez wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ui is really nothing special, but that is by design. We want it to work with JavaScript off and to be easily crawled so that Googlebot understands the structure. Spiders and crawlers have yet to catch up with the times and still have difficulty finding their way through sites that use JavaScript for navigation.

Alright, one nice feature would be to build an API so I could, for example, list content from a certain niche on my website.

"À la carte" feeds. I'm building this into the site as we speak. There will be a sign up form to create an account and to get a subscriber id. Subscribers can define filters. Within a filter is a list of keywords and a schedule (monthly, weekly, daily, hourly, or real-time) to generate a feed that matches your keywords. The "API" then would be HTTP GET and the response is RSS. Simple.