Comments on: New Sphere Focuses On Connections Between News Stories

By: LGNewMedia » Sphere - finding related content

LGNewMedia » Sphere - finding related content — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 10:30:22 +0000

[...] The Sphere website is basically a blog search engine. It’s described pretty well by Michael Arrington at TechCrunch: [...]

By: Sphere - finding related content

Sphere - finding related content — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 10:29:16 +0000

[...] The Sphere website is basically a blog search engine. It’s described pretty well by Michael Arrington at TechCrunch: [...]

By: Ajax Girl » Blog Archive » Sphere Quietly Nailing Its Business Model

Ajax Girl » Blog Archive » Sphere Quietly Nailing Its Business Model — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 02:11:01 +0000

[...] (an area that Google now dominates after a recent Technorati refocus), Sphere has spent its time developing technology that automatically finds blog posts related to whatever a user is looking at currently. The [...]

By: Tony Conrad

Tony Conrad — Wed, 16 May 2007 02:21:33 +0000

Hi Larry – bloggers also want to add to the user experience which is what we’re focused on doing. Partner sites also benefit from being linked to from other widget sites, increasing page-views and exposing new readers to their content. The argument against trapping users on a site is widely adopted. Sites like Yahoo and Google News were pioneers in linking out and both dwarf some of the venerable publisher brands that maintained a walled garden approach for a number of years. Most of those same sites proactively link outside their sites today b/c their users have embraced that approach. I believe, and I think most bloggers agree, that linking out is a part of the desired user experience.

By: Larry

Larry — Tue, 15 May 2007 23:50:47 +0000

What motivates a blogger putting Sphere it in his blog? When a reader clicks on Sphere it, it shows stuff from other sites and sends the reader away to other sites.

I thought a bloggers would want to keep readers on his own site longer. Am I missing something?

By: Venture Itch

Venture Itch — Mon, 07 May 2007 06:48:34 +0000

Ideal startup…

If I were asked what is my idea of an ideal startup, I would say that Sphere.com is the one. Just like Google, its main functionality is expressed in one stripped down to basics page. Actually Sphere’s website is not even essential part of its po…

By: tony conrad

tony conrad — Thu, 03 May 2007 15:44:49 +0000

Hi David – the site is open at http://www.sphere.com

also, our Sphere Related Content widget is available for WordPress.org, TypePad, Moveable Type and Blogger

By: David Mackey

David Mackey — Thu, 03 May 2007 14:28:39 +0000

Last I checked the Sphere website they were only allowing limited sites to utilize it. Has that changed?

By: Michael Arrington

Michael Arrington — Thu, 03 May 2007 05:44:39 +0000

Allen – Yeah, we’ll pull that up and publish it at some point. Good idea.

By: Allen Stern

Allen Stern — Thu, 03 May 2007 00:10:40 +0000

Mike – can you provide some details on the traffic you receive from Sphere?

By: tony conrad

tony conrad — Wed, 02 May 2007 21:19:16 +0000

Hey Josh – really appreciate your kind words. The weighting algorithm actually does try to make it a level playing field for blogs and the big page-view publisher sites. We’re tweaking and hopefully we’ll end up in the right place.

By: Josh Guttman

Josh Guttman — Wed, 02 May 2007 20:13:39 +0000

Great new design. A big step forward!! I also like the idea of dynamic updating with top stories from distribution partners….a cool way to grab a snapshot of the blogosphere and publishersphere in real time. Might be a good idea to apply some weighted algorithm (if you’re not already) since a blog posting that received 40,000 PVs, might be more popular on a relative basis than a NY Times story that received 60,000.

By: Jacki

Jacki — Wed, 02 May 2007 16:42:35 +0000

Aren’t there lots of others already doing this “personal homepage”? I don’t get it.

By: tony conrad

tony conrad — Wed, 02 May 2007 16:12:44 +0000

Hi Joe – thanks for the input. The idea behind the site is to let users infinitely drill down. When you click on an article in the Breaking News Column (Column 2), it gets previewed in the center preview window (Column 3). We then generate related content for the previewed article in the Related Content Column (Column 4). If you click on one of those articles, it will move to the preview window and we find more related content. The cycle, in theory, never ends.

By: Got spam on sphere

Got spam on sphere — Wed, 02 May 2007 16:02:30 +0000

Sorry not for me…

By: Casey Kazan

Casey Kazan — Wed, 02 May 2007 16:00:20 +0000

We are putting Sphere on our site…it’s the future. We’ve also had some nice traffic from Time.com via the Sphere partnership. Think they should aggressively expand their network to BBC etc etc.

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 02 May 2007 15:12:22 +0000

Cool service! However once “Related Blogs and Articles” popup appears, there is no way to get Related Content form stories listed there, you have to click on the story and get immediately sent offsite. There should be greater ability to drill down.

—-

We Will Create Your Very Own Domain Name – http://PowerNamer.com

By: pallet jack

pallet jack — Wed, 02 May 2007 14:55:39 +0000

Sounds like a neat concept – i have somthing in the pipes that could – hopefully be featured on TC .. in a couple months (news / related) .. and of course nothing like digg

By: Adrian

Adrian — Wed, 02 May 2007 14:17:09 +0000

I have been using Israeli based http://strategicboard.com to see what’s hot in the blogs.

By: wiredb

wiredb — Wed, 02 May 2007 12:13:04 +0000

Thanks Matthew, I really appreciate. You see, for much more news I’m using a feed reader, which gives me a lot of new stuff published. We tried to keep at a minimum, but still usable, for people who don’t have the time to read tens or hundreds of sources, or virtually thousands news a day.

By: Matthew Ogston

Matthew Ogston — Wed, 02 May 2007 11:44:28 +0000

I have to say i like the idea as a concept- but i find the limited display of information on the homepage a big negative. I regularly use Techmeme as it gives me a lot of grouped content all at once – it’s my choice how fast or how slow i scan the headlines.

The new Sphere interface is nice – but that’s really not why i go there…

By: wiredb

wiredb — Wed, 02 May 2007 11:33:39 +0000

Here’s another concept: editor picked tech news @ http://www.wiredb.com
Too many news are automatically harvested and has nothing human …

By: From Manchester To

From Manchester To — Wed, 02 May 2007 09:32:52 +0000

yeh most deffinetly

By: Yakov

Yakov — Wed, 02 May 2007 04:41:15 +0000

I think they are implementing a smart go-to-market strategy with an affiliate model for news publishers. It would be crucial to get major ones signed.

By: tony conrad

tony conrad — Wed, 02 May 2007 04:39:00 +0000

Hey Mike – thanks for your review of Sphere. You can see some additional thoughts on our blog at http://sphere.w...m-gets-sphered/