MSearchGroove

In-Brief: A summary of my recent column for eContent magazine outlining the nuts & bolts recommendation, with a special focus on a new approach that could help the mobile industry vastly improve content discovery.

Regular readers will know that I am passionate about my work for eContent magazine - a publication that encourages me to explore topics others ignore such as people-powered social search, social networking, content co-creation and DIY content distribution. (My special thanks to Michelle Manafy, editor and kindred spirit.)

Admittedly, I have yet to post some 50+ articles in the MSG portfolio. But today my bi-monthly column for eContent (aptly entitled Agile Minds) has met with such a positive response that I felt obligated to share it. (You can read the column, titled Recommendations and Revelations, here - and feel free to browse the Agile Minds archive here.)

This month’s column recounts my impressions from RecSys 2007, a conference I attended dedicated to recommenders and cutting-edge tools/technology. A presentation that stood out came from MyStrands, a company I have tracked from the start that has successfully harnessed the dynamics of social networks to develop what it calls a “social recommendation engine.” (Please check out other MSG coverage including this extremely popular guest column.)

Another one high on my radar is Aggregate Knowledge, a cool company that recently took the wraps off the Pique Discovery Network, an offering that is designed to “pique” the consumer’s interest in targeted content they will most likely find useful and would not have otherwise known existed. I post it here because the implications for content discovery and social networking in mobile are profound.

In fact, I have just returned from a string of mobile conferences where “discoverability” was the buzzword, and mobile social networking was the concept that made execs’ eyes water.

Look for Aggregate Knowledge to bring the two together.
As Dave Peterson, Chief Marketing Officer, put it: “Mobile isn’t our vision; it’s our roadmap.” The company harnesses people - not algorithms- across a variety of websites to expose content the collective will likely appreciate. This strategy is best expressed in the signature Timothy Vogel, Aggregate Knowledge Chief Scientist, attaches to his email: The taxonomy is in the traffic.

I’ll circle back this week with an exclusive Q&A with Paul Martino — the company’s cofounder who is perhaps best known as the founder of Tribe Network, a textbook example social network acquired by Cisco. I look forward to hearing (and sharing) his views on mobile search, content discovery and social media.

BTW: Watch this space for an exciting and exclusive announcement from another company linked to mobile social search and sharing. I’m producing the podcast tomorrow, which is under embargo until just before MWC, so please check back regularly. You will see it here first!

• Posted in
• Mobile Social Networking, Web 2.0, Recommendation, Mobile Search, Mobile Content, Content Discovery

2 comments

share

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

permalink