It might be too little, too late to launch a political news site. The U.S. election is only 11 days away, and interest in politics will taper off from the fever-high pitch we see now. But that’s not stopping Politics.com, which just launched yesterday as user-submitted site for political news, blog posts, and Youtube videos. It is kind of The Huffington Post meets Digg.
The site is run by a company in Virginia called Politics, but the URL has passed through many hands in the past. The current iteration is simple but effective. The homepage places articles from mainstream news organizations front and center, with sidebars featuring the most active users and the “Best of the Blogs.” Videos are at the bottom. There are also tabs for “news,” “blogs,” “users,” and “topics.” That’s it.
Users submit stories, blog posts, and videos. Those that get the most “endorsements” hit the front page, where readers can see the headline, the source, a one-sentence description, and who submitted it. Videos can come from YouTube or be uploaded directly.
The site would have been better off launching during the primaries so that it could have had nine months to build up a following. With these things it’s all about the users. (Who do you think would win in a fight, Political Ninja or FreedomGirl? My money is on FreedomGirl).
But it looks more like a domain play. Politics.com is obviously a valuable domain, and putting up a user-generated news site is certainly a better idea than parking ads there. But you’ve got to wonder how much they paid for that domain.
Where’s the hook?
With so many sites like this it seems there needs to be a USP or some sort of hook… maybe there is enough room for another?
KCurtis
Need Leads? http://ngagelive.com/leads/
What are its revenue sources? – apart from Google ads
I don’t see any hook at all. We already have Digg, HuffPo, NewsCred, Politico – why do we need another news site??
It’s definately a domain play.
What a good find! A great hybrid (Huffington + Digg)
Thanx a million – will probably be on it until next month.
BTW:
Let’s all pray for Obama’s Grandmother. What an awful time to pass away
The best looking political web site I have ever seen… minus content.
But I give them a chance.
I don’t see how this will improve their traffic. It will fail like the last iteration.
Wow. Execution?
Not only is it 11 days before the election when they decided to relaunch but their google pagerank value is zero (gray bar). This probably means they let the domain go down for an extended period (return 404 error messages). Dumb. How hard would it have been just recycle a few political news blurbs to keep the google bot happy while you reformat?
sell the domain name
The reason why they waited until so close to the finish of the Presidential Election is that they didn’t want to alienate potential visitors by aligning itself to either side of the political fence. It’s sorta like last minute endorsements from politicians once it has become pretty clear who will win.
For example, if Politics.com was taken over by a large Republican userbase and Obama won, then people wouldn’t drop by the site as much. Obama lovers certainly wouldn’t visit.
I think the site is useless.
Good grief, do we need another political site!?!? That’s all we ever hear about anymore!
Momma
feature blogger at Engineer a Debt Free Life
“It is kind of The Huffington Post meets Digg”
Wait there’s a difference between Digg and Huff Post? I hadn’t noticed
There are too many politics sites now! I came across this one a while ago. Even though it’s extremely simple, it often times has the content I’m looking for – recent blog posts from candidates, videos, etc.
http://www.electionwatch.org
Great domain name…
Too bad they didn’t utilize the full potential of that domain name to actually do something and create revenue for the past two years of presidential election, oof!
seriously. no difference between huff post and digg. both big corporations who censor their news.
and can someone please get that stupid seesmic video comment out of my face!
Funny (political) post over at SinglePill.com on Joe The Plumber.
Check it out.
http://singlepi...our-15-minutes/
Not a bad look but it’s more of the same…people are so tapped on politics. Culture11.com is another start-up with a wider cultural appeal but still enough political content that you can stay engaged.
Not sure about the comparison with Huffington… I went to the site and it is all user-submitted content and social stuff. The Foes is kinda interesting – never seen that before.
I actually like the site.
Well done.
Mike
http://www.wannadevelop.com
So, what’s the big deal. There essentially aggregating Political news from other sites and blog. Nothing new.
SO, what’s the big deal. They’re essentially aggregating Political news from other sites and blogs. Nothing new.
Hi Guys!
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I use a widget that collects all the polls from all the major pollsters and display an overview of who will be the next US president.
I think you might like it:-)
http://www.youc...s/1218019592041
.. and it is easy to put on your site or blog.
make a difference – keep voting!
I love the site and I am not even that political…. *yet*
You can think of this site being like Facebook, Youtube, Digg all rolled into one site.
I hope that in the future it could be used for more since they allow politicians to sign-up maybe it could be used as a way to easily contact your local politician
SO, what’s the big deal. They’re essentially aggregating Political news from other sites and blogs. Nothing new.