newsflashr is No Flash in the Pan
Although it has been up and running (and including the feed for Stock Market Beat) for some time now, various issues have kept me from giving newly launched news feeder newsflashr the attention it deserves. Having finally gotten the opportunity to do so, I like what I see.
Newsflashr distinguishes itself from other aggregators through ease of use and transparency. A tag cloud shows the hottest topics du jour, and users can click to see what either mainstream media or a selection of top bloggers has been saying about the subject. Headlines are ranked according to relevance (number of times a keyword appears in the headline) and the popularity of the source.
I found it particularly useful for getting a quick feel for the response to events such as Google’s earnings announcement. The list of headlines gave the usual “Google Beats,” along with a quick way of spotting the more interesting “Why Was Everyone Wrong-sided on Google?“.
For a more general idea of what is being talked about, the feed view lists the various sources and offers a quick skim of their most recent headlines, more akin to a traditional news reader.
If I have any complaint about the service, it is the lack of a full-feed view. Clicking a headline opens that site in a new window, which I appreciate as a publisher, but sometimes wish to avoid as a reader. Also, the feeds available are currently limited to a selection (admittedly a large one) of the top sources. While these are indeed the sources I most frequently consider, there are other sources I would like to be able to add as part of a personalized newsflashr. Based on what I have seen, I would bet adding those features is simply a matter of time.
All in all, I expect I will turn more frequently to newsflashr, and over time may cull the feeds it includes from my current feed reader since its presentation of those feeds is more useful.
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[...] may recall that when I reviewed the Newsflashr service I said the feeds available are currently limited to a selection (admittedly a large one) of the top [...]