Personalization, where content is customized to every user, is a popular trend. It’s been adopted by a variety of websites, including search, news, and music. The overall argument behind the push for personalization is that more targeted content (and ads) will drive greater pageviews (and revenue).
MineKey is a startup that makes adding personalization to any website simple through their embeddable widget. The widget looks like a mini RSS reader that displays relevant links for selected feeds. Recommendations are based on links from any number of RSS feeds you choose and can run across multiple properties. It comes in three different flavors: plain gray, colorful, or with a fully customizable skin.
The widget uses four sources to determine what links to display: the content’s context, individual surfing behavior, group surfing behavior, and your affinity for personalization. First, their algorithms generate content based on the content of the page. Then it compiles recommended content based on your surfing behavior and that of all the site’s visitors (tracked via cookie). Finally, based on your previous choices, the algorithm determines whether you prefer content targeted to your general personal interests or that of the website’s visitors at large.
MineKey says that they can track how a users interests evolve, differentiating between short-term and long-term user interests. This could potentially avoid the problem surfing history poses to behavior based customization. For instance, if you switch from reading about sports to stocks, you could wind up with sports scores when you want stock tips. It’s similar to problems Yahoo’s new SmartAds may encounter.
Minekey is a Silicon Valley based start up with a development office in Delhi and an R&D team on campus at IIT Karagpur in India.
Perhaps I’m not reading this right, but is this not just a “smart” RSS aggregator?
@Justin, I think the idea is actually quite more than that. It aggregates RSS feeds based on the content of the site where the widget is embedded. Furthermore, it seems to track what the user that interacts with it finds interesting and how it relates to the content of the site. It is targeted RSS, that adapts to the user. Very cool!
@Alex, I apologize if this comes off as flaming, because I don’t mean it to, but isn’t that what I just said? We agree on the aggregation part, but it’s “smart” in that its contextual, rather just random. Right? Or am I still missing something?
Read into http://www.minekey.com/about/tech for more. Also, Google is experimenting with a behavioral component for AdSense. Interesting developments. Also the last issue of Business covered a few Ad companies, which are striving to deliver ad content based not only on users’ previous purchases and what others have bought who also bought the same item, but also delivering “likeness” based advertising. This is all along the same avenue. A truly successful ad platform would be one that is a function of all these different elements. Naturally, Google is probably best positioned for this kind of thing. I would not be surprised if they collect really advanced behavioral data. For example, they can easily track how people navigate through a search screen, based on clicks and mousemoves. Hmm… With their latest behavioral advertising testing, I am pretty sure something really cool is in the works.
Looks real promising with the different aspects that the software looks into before delivering the links. In my opinion though, Widgets are not a great money making tool. Apart from probably a link on the embeddable widget, the company making widgets do not get anything in return in most cases. And I don’t think bloggers might spend to ‘buy’ a widget if it is not free. How is the company planning to make money then? Good Luck to the guys from Kharagpur though..
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Anand
Feedrer (Private beta)
Although it uses RSS feeds, it is delivering links based on relevance to the user’s behavior, not posting time.
I want to try it and see what it do
Souncs appealing — I’d like to see a more detailed comparison with other things like grazr though… get those interns cracking!
I’d of course like it even more if..
a- it wasn’t Flash but say PHP so the content would become part of
what search engines see (a user key could be added to identify the pages)
b- there was some kind of API where I could give it specific keyword hints…
c- user didn’t have to choose input RSS feeds, rather the widget would scan a slew of them automatically. I’m finding that feed-savvy users are still the minority.
Is there anything around that fits those requirements?
the revenue model?
License to sites with over 500k hits/mo ? free to smaller sites?
- because if its not free; Im not using it.
- if it shows ads, Im not using it. etc….
I like the idea. But at first I want to test it whether it works properly
@ 9
The model is to get the widget on to as many sites as possible, then have a company that benefits from increased page views of sites displaying ads (such as the ad provider; Google, Y!, MS) purchase them.
How is personalization a trend? At this point isn’t it more of a pillar?
Interesting..here is another story on minekey - on how it works..
Interesting observation:
“Though the current avatar has all the jazziness to attract bloggers to use the product, there are a few jaggy edges. For e.g. one cannot fully customize the widgets as one would like to..”
http://www.pluggd.in/2007/08/m.....page-views
Personalization is a trend… for some people
Rb–you got it on the revenue model. And it will be free for small sites. Custom solutions for big sites. Widget is fully customizable for all now. Blog owner sets it up with whatever feeds they want to point to and we provide personalized content depending upon what the individual user is reading or has read in the past.
Also, it is not Flash but javascript.
man from N: We like your idea for a version that scans a whole bunch of default feeds and will look into that for our offering. If you go to Minekey and register, you can put keyword hints into the system.
We are going to continue to modify the beta over the next few months to make sure what gets surfaced is most interesting and relevant to the individual reader.
Sorry, forgot to include that I work at Minekey.
That’s not the revenue model. The real revenue model is capture all these users information and sell it to people. Or at least sell the engine to someone who wants that type of information.
I can’t believe the privacy nazis haven’t come out on this one. I wonder what type of aggregate information the company is gleaning from this widget. I’d still personally consider using the widget since I think it would drive more traffic to various websites, but the privacy does make me question it.
Is it really such a hard concept to grasp? It seems like the people arguing against this service just can’t understand the “why” and are concentrating on the money.
Reminds me of trying to explain to an old girlfriend buying tickets online (for a small premium) verses arriving early, waiting in line and possibly being sold out (yes, this was very early on–before the kiosks arrived).
“But why would we spend MORE money buying tickets when we can get them regular price at the theater?”
Bloody hell. What I get for posting while at work–juggling various tabs it was bound to happen.
Obviously commenting on the wrong story, please disregard.
I tried this out… put a widget in my page… but i have a couple questions:
• when do the recommendations start? Minekey doesn’t seem to be parsing the page yet.
• I like the cheerful theme (wish there were more colors), but how is the third theme option ‘fully customizable’ if you can only change the BG color?
MyBlogLog can effectively do this. Since they have already a large member base and trust from these members.
Hi Randy,
* The Recommendation will start kicking in as soon you start reading articles .
There are two main usage patterns that minekey has
1. As a web surfer
The recommendation that the widget gives you depends on your browsing history. So say that there is Widget on Site A and another Widget on Site B. The recommendation we serve you on Site A’s Widget depends on your behaviour( articles you have clicked) on both Site A and B.
2. As a Website/Blog Owner
You have put up a widget on your page. When some one comes to your website( Whether a first time user or a registered Minekey user). His browsing behaviour on your website is tracked or carried forward by which he is served recommendation from the pool of all the links that you have provided through RSS from your website for that widget. Sounds Confusing ?
I Hope this answers your query.
Regarding the Fully Customizable Theme. There is an option for setting the title and the link color along with the background color. Are you facing any problems with that ?
sounds good! I would prefer to have a look personally, the customisation concept is fast catching up what with every other company offering customisation to its readers.
@Robin Anil
I just presume you too are working at Minekey (Do all guys at MineKey forget to mention that ;)..Just kidding )…
Regarding ##1 As a web surfer - Doesn’t that work only when the surfer himself is a registered user of Minekey..or is it that you put a cookie into my browser just from the javascript code when I visit one of the sites that has your widget embedded?
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Anand
Feedrer (Private beta)
Had a look at this a week ago, when it was over at Proto (India’s version of demo), unless I am missing something isn’t this like findory. Which didn’t require you to register, but altered its homepage based on the links you clicked upon.
@Robin, I’m confused
1. How do you keep track of what I have surfed, if I surf site A, and then site B, do you change what is displayed in the widget based on where I have been before I get to site A, or after I leave site A, and how long do you track me for, and is it cookie based, i.e limited per PC or whatever
2. So I own a blog, lets call it techcrunch.com for now :-), I add the widget, when users come and look at the blog, each will see a different set of links within the widget, based upon where they have been before they come to techcrunch, or what links they are clicking on in techcrunch. And the source of these links is dependant upon the person who setup the widget. i.e how many feeds he has coming in. i.e if I have three feeds, one for football, one for trance music, and one for horses (dont ask me why), then if a person is interested in say mobile phones, the links will not really customise
Thank you, Robin (whose association with Minekey is clearly disclosed in the post title link). Sounds cool. Since my company has 10 websites, all with subtly-different content, the Minekey technique as you describe it does sound more interesting to me now. In the interim though, it would be cool if Minekey did a quick check and opted not repeat a link if it is already in the page somewhere previously. Right now it’s just skimming the top 5 items from my feed, some of which are already on the page.
Perhaps the process of getting Minekey to start suggesting stuff will be sped up if I embed Minekey in a hidden layer on every page of my site, so it can begin the process of harvesting info, then start selectively showing the layers when the algorithm kicks in?
I also work at Minekey here in Sunnyvale. Randy, thank you trying out the widget, you are correct that currently Minekey only analyzes your current RSS feed items. But email me at rajiv at minekey.com and we will help find a solution for you.
too bad……just a copy cat of SPHERE
Sweet. I like this idea…a lot.
@rammo
its a bit strange to hear that some people still thinks that Minekey is copy cat of Sphere. Sphere is related service where Minekey provides recommendation service.
Sphere will give you articles related to what you have just read but Minekey will recommend you articles not only what you are reading now but also based on your browsing history. And this recommendation will differ from user to user unlike the case of Sphere.
for more insight what Minekey does you can visit
http://www.minekey.com/about/tech
rammo, it will be great for us to know why you really thought that Minekey is copy cat of Sphere. It will enormously help us modifying our about pages and the way we project Minekey. Please feel free to drop ur suggestions.
regards
jayanta
(developer at Minekey)
Please correct the typo in the article, ‘IIT Karagpur’ to ‘IIT Kharagpur’.. I am a student of this institute..
thanks..