Yesterday on Thinking Home Business I wrote about the new web content aggregator site Alltop and observed that it is an excellent resource for anyone who wants to get a quick, interesting overview of current online coverage of their favorite topic. That post was focused on the Small Business category on Alltop.
This deswalsh.com site is listed in the Social Media section of Alltop.
One commenter on my post yesterday asked why I would not just use a feed reader. My reply was that it was a case of complementarity, not either/or.
The feeds on my reader (or rather, readers) are chosen by me. That's an advantage, in that I can avoid having information coming in that is of no interest, or an unproductive distraction. It's also a drawback, because I know that:
- there are lots of sites I don't know about, or don't know enough about, to automatically include them in my feed reader
- life would be truly dull if there were no surprises
The selection of sites featured on Alltop is made by others. So I get to be better informed than if I were left to my own reader-stuffing devices and I get to be more entertained than if I had to be solely responsible for surprising myself.
To be honest, initially I had been a bit wary of the site after reading Jeremiah Owyang's contentious - and contested - post, in which he labeled the Alltop project a "gimmick site with marketing flair".
And Community Guy Jake McKee has an interesting point when he argues that Alltop, with its lack of login, RSS and commenting, could be called an "anti-social media site".
Jake also says that Alltop is "fast, focused and useful". I agree. And, also like Jake, I am happy to have my site included. Thanks Guy.
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