I got the news today about the Yahoo partnership with a consortium of seven newspaper chains, from the New York Times article via a Factiva Editor Choice Track Folder on 'Online/Intranet services'.
Maybe my experiences and work habits are from being a information junkie-because who really has the time to test out all the gadgets like me! But here is how it went:
I have this factiva news folder feeding into my RSS readers (currently Bloglines, Google Reader, and Attensa) (i am running some usability tests and i just updated them all with the same OMPL) as well as a new 'Attention Management Engine' called Touchstone that is 'almost Beta' that i have been testing out. (i came across Touchstone back in May, was invited to participate in the Alpha which sat in my inbox but after meeting Chris Saad this month at the Web2point2-un-conference and having a couple of conversations about what he is doing, i knew i had to give it a try).
I had a late start today because i am feeling a bit under the weather today. So when i mustered up the energy to start-up my computer i already had business to take care of in my inbox so no time to browse my news feeds.
So where did this article get my attention?
>>it first popped up in the ticker feature of Touchstone early in the morning (i didn't do a screen capture so this link is a standard view)
>>i clicked on the item to read the full text of the NYT article within factiva.com
>>i read the article and forwarded to a couple of folks- had an IM quick chat with one of them
>>Later on in the evening when i had some time i went to Techmeme to 'listen' in on the conversation around the topic. And what an interesting conversation it has been (expand the discussion function once you hit the page).
This is not the first time Yahoo! or Google has tried to become more of a player in the main stream media aggregation business and i am sure it won't be the last.
Working for a content aggregator in the media business should worry me- but it doesn't because as i talk to clients what they are trying to do is deal with the information overload that their employees are being bombarded with. They are not looking for more free content- but more relevant, timely content that is free of distractions and tools to faciliate the redistribution of that content in order to encourage collaboration and knowledge sharing.
Credibility in delivering information to enterprise workers is key (and mainstream media brings that credibilty hence why Yahoo! wants it) but consistent delivery tied to the employee's profile and what they are trying to do is just as important. While free search and news services are trying to acquire 'premium' content for consumers, we have been busy delivering enterprise solutions that meet very specific needs in the enterprise information delivery world- using years of experience in the space to deliver solutions that bring main stream media as well as new media sources like blogs to the user at the right time, in the right place with little effort by the end-user. Maybe they will eventually come into this space once they build out their content distribution model (i see Google specifically going into the enterprise space) but we seem to have a 25+yr lead on them at this point.
and a reminder if you new to reading my blog and haven't read the disclaimer above: The posts on this blog are provided ‘as is’ with no warranties and confer no rights. The opinions expressed on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent those of my past,future or present employer.
Monday, November 20, 2006
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