Twingly launches real time 'channels' in private beta
Blog search engine Twingly wants to help publishers generate revenue, says CEO
– 2 min read
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A new aggregation 'channels' system has been launched by Twingly in private beta . Twingly, a blog search engine launched in Sweden in 2007 , has developed the new feature to allow users to set up channels on their chosen topic from various sources, search results and feeds.
As more people read and comment on a story, it will be given higher priority in the channel.
A Twingly channel acts as 'a social filter' on top of feeds and real-time search, allowing users to set up a 'social memetracker' for any topic or event, Twingly explained at launch .
The idea of Twingly Channels is to reduce information coming in via RSS, search result feeds and social media, to a manageable and filtered amount.
"One of the problems that has been accelerated by Twitter and by Facebook, is an information overload," Martin Källström, Twingly CEO, told Journalism.co.uk.
"Noise becomes so much louder - you have to endure so many discussions that are not relevant to your deeper interests."
Twingly Channels aims to remedy this, he said.
"The real-time web is overwhelming us with information. Search is not social. RSS is a broken promise. Twingly Channels brings a revolution to these three areas," its launch blog post boasted .
For now, interested users must apply for a beta code before joining.
"With the channels, we're aiming to allow people to set out a topic and really create a micro-community for people who share the same interests and to allow them to collaborate on what is most relevant each day and what is most interesting," Källström said.
"A big part of our concept development goes into finding ways to create revenue for our media partners."
Twingly intends to find ways for his products to generate revenue for both Twingly and publishers via sponsorship and advertising, he said.
Twingly is continuing its development of 'Blogstream' : a system for publishers to measure 'trackbacks' to their content, currently used by 50 newspapers, magazines and television channels in eight countries , he said.
Blogstream provides a widget for publishers' sites, showing who is linking to content elsewhere.
With Blogstream the number of weekly bloglinks increases by an average of 250 per cent within a few weeks, Twingly has claimed: "You enrich your content and get more incoming links which drive traffic to your site."
While most of Twingly's clients are currently based in Scandinavian countries , the BBC stands out as a notable English-language client. It uses Twingly to supply external data for its BBC Shownar site, launched in June 2009 to 'track the online buzz around BBC shows'.
