NewsCred, the news aggregator that ranks stories by the credibility of their source, has launched to the public. Instead of relying on popularity as many social news sites do, NewsCred instead allows users to rate each story, author, and publication’s credibility, which is then plugged into an algorithm to determine the site’s prominent headlines.
We originally introduced the site last May when it launched in private alpha. Since then, NewsCred has implemented a number of new features, including a more thorough search, topic-specific pages, and a section for breaking news.
My biggest criticism when I first reviewed the site was the apparently weak implementation of the credibility algorithm, or even the viability of creating one in the first place. Credibility is very difficult to measure, and can often be misleading. News organizations that break news may be less accurate, as tips aren’t always reliable. But is a news source that simply rehashes established information really a better alternative? The site has responded to these issues, among others, by implementing its breaking news section and tweaking its algorithm, but it is still a work in progress.
Because the site has remained private until now, the credibility scores at launch aren’t particularly meaningful, which makes it hard to judge how effective the system will be. But even if the credibility rankings turn out to be ineffective, NewsCred could still be a success. The site offers a clean and intuitive news aggregator that will appeal to users who may not be fond of traditional RSS readers.
Similar offerings (that rely on different recommendation systems) include Regator and Socialmedian.
Of all the sites aiming to introduce RSS to the masses, I think this has the best chance. Clean, intuitive layout. Leaving aside the credibility aspect, the new features should appeal to most users. Lets see if they can get traction!
Easy to browse and has great customization options. Always feels like the events and stories I’m most interested in are presented up front.
Aha, congrat for Shafqat. Their #1 duty now is to make people want to rank those stories on their site. Trust me. This won’t be easy.
My concern is that with only 100 sources to choose from it is not actually easy to expect people actually to be able to customize the content exactly the way they want it. After all, there may be news sources that are more credible to me personally but are not present in their list.
They definitely seem to have more than 100 sources. I just chose a random category and counted atleast 120 and then stopped counting. Its probably in the 100s not in the 1000s.
Try http://socialmedian.com then. you can add your own source, form your own channels.
I’ve been using the service since their Private Alpha a couple months ago. At first I was a bit skeptical, but the improvements they’ve made are quite dramatic and I’m a believer now. Their topic pages (automatic I believe) are great, and if they can quickly grow the user face, they have every chance of success.
Congratulations on your launch from ‘old Scred’. Had a system like this that I was creating for fun in the golden 90s. Has good potential and wishing you all the best!
Cred != Investigative Journalism?
I hope The Daily Show makes the list, since it seems to be the most credible source of news in the U.S. at the moment.
I don’t need a NewScred my Old Scred still works fine.
ok
Oh yes, inviting the marketing departments, VCs, and a nation of partisan paranoids on both sides (who see bias in any outlet that doesn’t reconstitute their world view) to rank news outlets by “credibility”…what could possibly go wrong?
Great interface. Makes browsing news articles a joy. Personalized haven’t had a great track record but this is a novel spin on it that could take off.
(BTW Does anyone know what ever happened to Google News’s great idea about letting participants in stories correct the article. Not heard much about that recently).
Hi, this is Scott, one of the co-founders of Regator. Congrats to Shafqat and his team. Just wanted to add that Regator and NewsCred are quite different when it comes down to it, as Regator does not have any “newsfeeds” (AP, Newspapers,etc), we only have blogs that are hand-picked by our editors. A subtle difference but in practice a fairly large distinction. Right now we have well over 3,000 of them in our directory and it’s growing every day. Socialmedian would be a little closer to NewsCred in that they are more focused on newsfeeds, but still the sites take a fairly different take on it.
Jason - thanks for the link mate
Before going to Iraq war we had a 2000 : 1 ratio of pro Iraq war to against in amount of material in the news. We are doing the same in regards to Iran now as we are about to blunder into another mess.
The media in US–and increasingly more around the world– is under the control of a select group, that I would not mention by name.
The war in Iraq was pushed by that certain group, and has cost average tax payers up to 3 trillion dollars. This type of power is detrimental and I hope sites like this are able to shed some light on how unbalanced our news has become.
I’m a contributing editor at NewsTrust.net - which does a similar service, but I also work in the digital journalism space in general. I also want to offer a congrats to Shafqat - his has the best ideals for NewsCred and I fully support it. Good luck!!!
Nice - but beta scares me. Just when you really fall in love with a beta product it goes poof.