Most of the content on news aggregators are freshly pulled from a wide variety of sources and can be a fountain of inspiration for anyone who is tired of blogging about the same things everyday.
In this article, I’ve made a list of several social news aggregators and meme trackers you can use to generate fresh and relevant content for your blog.
How do I use Social News Aggregators to create content for my niche?
Most news aggregators and meme trackers have search bars so this is the first place you want to start.
Doing a search for keywords relevant to your blog is the fastest way to come up with content ideas and it also has the added benefit of preventing you from being distracted by other material.
If you don’t have anything in mind, try looking at the most popular or latest news sections to see if anything suits your fancy.
Some news aggregators group related blog entries together under a specific topic so pick a topic you want, visit the other blogs and reference them by sending a trackback.
This allows you to get involved in the conversation and might win you some new readers as well. Just remember to add your own original take on the article so you won’t be contributing to the echo chamber.
Dosh Dosh’s Top 10 Social News Aggregators and Meme Trackers
The first five websites are what I consider to be some of the better news aggregators out there.
I haven’t used the other five websites as much because of either usability or information issues: They either have limited user features or don’t seem to track information as well as the first five.
If you don’t have time to check out the entire list, go with the first five.. they’ll provide you with more than enough news and content ideas.
1. PopUrls
One of my favorite social news aggregator. I love the fact that PopURLs places Reddit, Del.icio.us and Digg right at the top and it’s truly a one page scroll-friendly social news website.
There are no excerpts for each article and PopUrls also includes news feeds from Google & Yahoo, videos from Metacafe and Youtube as well as blog posts from popular blogs like Boing Boing.
Excellent resource if you don’t mind just reading headlines and need a quick no-frills information boost.
2. Megite
Megite is a little like TechMeme but it covers more topics such as entertainment as well as sports and business. They also have a “River of News” section that features all sorts of news articles that are updated very frequently.
I liked the option of using tags to locate what you want: this is an function that I haven’t seen in most news aggregators. You can also export all the feeds you read and set up your own personalized Megite that updates when the blogs you read make a new post.
Very cool. I like Megite a lot and use them often.
3. TailRank
Features topics like politics and entertainment, uses excerpts for each story and includes links from blogs that relate to the specific story. Top posts and breaking news are listed on the right sidebar, which is a nice touch.
Great meme tracker for bloggers into politics because they seem to be particularly strong in that area. You can choose to either subscribe via RSS or bookmark each specific link that interests you.
4. Techmeme
A more serious read on the topics in the tech industry. A website to follow when you want to break news on specific tech related topics. Very little visual clutter and there’s a news hierarchy which shows related items together.
I think material on Techmeme might be too centered around A List blogs so I’ve stop following it closely. I personally like a greater variety of opinions from other blogs and sources. Not for everyone but definitely some great news worthy material there.
5. Google News
Good old Google News is one of the best places to visit when you want to get the latest information on World, Business or Tech news. Almost all their sources come from online newspapers or established online magazines.
Good clean interface that allows for personalization and a very good search option which allows you to comb through over 4,500 news sources at one go.
6. Spotplex
A news aggregator that ranks articles according to the number of reader views on each website. Articles are categorized into specific tabs such as Technology, Business, Science and the Arts.
News stories includes excerpts and blogs are also ranked according to views within the last 12 hours or all time. The right sidebar also has a list of popular articles in the last 24 hours.
Not a website to use if you want to follow other blogger’s response to a specific news item or topic because related entries are not tracked. Spotplex also loads rather slowly at times. Understandable, because they are still in beta.
7. SpotBack
A news aggregator which covers blogs and online newspapers. I like Spotback because of it categorizes and subcategorizes news into specific topics/industries/niches.
If you register, you can also set personalized alerts and save stories for future viewing. Includes excerpts from blogs and even allows you to track specific keywords. SpotBack also stands out because they allow you rate each news article you read.
I don’t use them much because the interface seems a little too cluttered for my liking.
8. BuzzFeed
Buzzfeed claims to combine technology identification of popular items around the internet and actual editorial selection by an experienced team of editors or what they call “human taste-makers” .
News is categorized in various sections such as Movies, Lifestyle and Business. Here’s an example of how content is arranged: BuzzFeed will create a buzz item (e.g. “Hillary Clinton“) and include a variety of popular links which talk about the specific item.
Feels like a magazine but doesn’t seem to cover a lot of material. Buzzfeed is also updated considerably slower than other aggregators.
Original Signal has a format that is similar to PopURLs except that information is divided into specific categories. There’s a Buzz tab for social networks, a Digg tab for all the recent and popular items on Digg in various categories as well as a Web 2.0 tab with feeds from top blogs like Tech Crunch, Mashable and GigaOM.
I don’t use them often because I prefer PopURLs’s one page format, but you might find Original Signal to your liking.
10. Transmitt
Another news aggregator that’s similar to PopURLS. I really like the little excerpt box that comes up when you hover over each link on the website. Very classy. Most of the content on Transmitt comes from blogs.
I was surprised to see Headspace, Ehub and Pronet Advertising on the aggregator. They don’t usually show up on other aggregators so I suppose these the blogs the site owner reads.
Interestingly enough, Transmitt has a built in To-Do list that allows you input tasks to do for the day. Novel but I think Transmitt doesn’t have enough material to be a useful news aggregator.
And that wraps up my list..
Do you use any of these social news aggregators or know of any other excellent social news websites that I’ve missed out?
Leave a comment and let me know. Have fun writing your next post!
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