June 27, 2002
4:41 AM   Subscribe

Five stars for BEST NEWS SOURCES SITE: FWJC - floating wreckage - jettisoned cargo. Who says design can't be simple. Looks like just another little news blog? Look again. Neat little pulldown menus conceal 26,000 links to beautifully organized lists of news and reference sources.
posted by sheauga (18 comments total)
 


All hail sheauga!

So is there anything interesting in the news today, darling? ;)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 5:04 AM on June 27, 2002


ouch... I feel left out. The issue with all these sites is that they aggregate news, they don't filter them --yes, I am a dataminer by trade, there's a difference. 26 or 64,000 links or not, the real issue is finding interesting news not just finding news articles--otherwise we'd all be reading CNN or BBC, not MeFi, or Obscure Store, for example.

At least that's my €0.02; I was overwhelmed by links at NewsIsFree and Syndic8 (both excellent sites with a lot, lot of work behind them) to the point of giving up using them regularly. That's why I don't think plain aggregation is the answer. Now, on the other hand I am not saying that memigo is necessarily the silver bullet, but it's a first attempt to use proven tech (collaborative filtering, kinda like Amazon or TiVo recommendations) to tackle this... End of plug :-)
posted by costas at 6:09 AM on June 27, 2002


Wow. An amazing site. Completely overwhelming.
posted by ColdChef at 6:44 AM on June 27, 2002


costas: I like your site, too, but I prefer my news a bit more on the silly side. Tech news makes my eyes glaze over.
posted by ColdChef at 6:46 AM on June 27, 2002


Agree totally that aggregation of free web resources isn't the answer, costas. Pros use paid services instead, like Lexis-Nexis, Factiva, Dialog, Infotrieve, etc. so they can cross-search high-quality materials. Naturally, with these high-end information services, custom aggregation, newsfeeds, selective dissemination of information, intranet and portal development tends to run into money fast!

(Memigo does look like a neat tool. Still, I think that the essence of filtering lies in connecting with human expertise, not in technology.)

My picks for today would be this story from Atlanta:
The tale of a CDC nutritionist who went back home to Afghanistan and hopes to get Afghanistan's salt iodized, or
China's pandas get sex ed and exercise program
posted by sheauga at 7:01 AM on June 27, 2002


Kwsnet is totally amazing. However... any giant list of resources falls apart in the details. Taking the art auction section for instance, Artscape was never "New York's premiere art scene website," and it especially isn't now that it doesn't exist anymore. The site descriptions overall are rather wildly inconsistent.

I would never expect the editor/s to keep up with everyone one of these links, Lord no. But the fact that no one possibly could makes me question the usefulness of such accumulation. (That being said, I'm finding some fun things I didn't know about).
posted by RJ Reynolds at 7:02 AM on June 27, 2002


ColdChef: In the next few days I will be adding Channels to memigo, so you will get your silly news --I want them too :-)

sheauga: I couldn't agree more. Memigo is not (completely) technology driven: the users rate the stories, filtering out the more interesting ones. You have to register to see the filtered view, however --you have to give something, ratings, to get something, i.e. filtered news...
posted by costas at 7:20 AM on June 27, 2002


Okay, I'm registered. Bring on the stories about stupid criminals!
posted by ColdChef at 7:26 AM on June 27, 2002


CC: ya got to wait a little bit, as I said. Then I will be parsing ObscureStore (one of my favorites for sure). Any other sources?
posted by costas at 7:29 AM on June 27, 2002


well, obscurestore is the best, but...annanova's always good for a laugh.
posted by ColdChef at 7:35 AM on June 27, 2002


there's also yahoo! news' oddly enough :) um, which i guess is just reuters. but really i just scan the most-emailed and most-viewed pages for the combinations of pictures and stories (to send to friends :) yahoo!

oh wait, AP has strange news, too.
posted by kliuless at 8:26 AM on June 27, 2002


SYDNEY, Australia - A man who broke his arm when he slipped on a greasy bar floor caused by a patron who wore pork chops for shoes won more than $33,600 in compensation.

Now, that's MY kind of news!
posted by ColdChef at 8:35 AM on June 27, 2002


RJReynolds: Two well maintained giant lists:
Gary Price's News Center (updated 5/22)
The Librarian's Guide to the Internet (she updates and may also add sites if you e-mail her.)
posted by sheauga at 9:11 AM on June 27, 2002


Bring on the stories about stupid criminals!

ColdChef, I joined MeFi one day before you, but that doesn't necessarily make me an old hand. Still, as I understand the rules, self-linking is o.k. in the threads.

If you really enjoy stupid criminals, check out my book. I 'filtered' and 'cross-searched' 10 years of police reports from my island in Maine into an easily digested 164 pages.
posted by LeLiLo at 9:25 AM on June 27, 2002


Cool. Thanks.
posted by ColdChef at 9:42 AM on June 27, 2002


Ooo I am totally hearting the Librarian's Guide to the Internet! (Though the scoring is odd but hey...) In combination with FWJC I can finally know everything! Muh ha ha!
posted by RJ Reynolds at 11:44 AM on June 27, 2002


An amazing site. Very bookmark-worthy. Thanks, sheauga.
posted by iconomy at 12:25 PM on June 27, 2002


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