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galaga Automated news doesn't quite work- but people make plenty of mistakes too!
News aggregator Techmeme melds algorithms and humans
VentureBeat —
... Today, the site is moving beyond its chiefly technology-driven method of finding top stories. It has hired a human editor to help shape the site’s content: Megan McCarthy, a veteran tech reporter. ...
TechMeme Gives Up On Fully Automated News
TechCrunch —
... That isn’t working, says founder Gabe Rivera today in a blog post: “Only an algorithm would feature news about Anna Nicole Smith’s hospitalization after she’s already been declared dead, as our automated celeb news site WeSmirch did last year.” ...
Techmeme Becomes A Cyborg With Hire of Human Editor - Megan McCarthy
ReadWriteWeb —
Freelance tech writer Megan McCarthy just landed one of the coolest jobs on the new web, editing semi-automated news aggregator Techmeme. The hire was made last month but just announced today in a blog post by site founder Gabe Rivera.
McCarthy's new job is really interesting in a number of ways. Rivera says with her addition "it really feels like the age of the news cyborg has arrived." It's also very interesting because of who McCarthy is. Most of all it's interesting because it's an absolute dream job for any tech news junky. We discuss the ...
Techmeme's Gabe Rivera Gets a Human Editor; Is that Good?
Beet.TV —
... Techmeme founder Gabe Rivera today announced the introduction of human editors to the automated news aggregator. Gabe lays out his reasons on the site today. TechCrunch's ...
Interviewed: TechMeme's new robot overseer
Webware.com —
... now has a human editor, TechMeme founder and developer Gave Rivera revealed in a blog post today. The new overload to the TechMeme robots: Megan McCarthy, formerly of ...
Machine-Driven News Site Adds a Human Editor
Bits —
... , the popular technology and business news hub, has become the ultimate news cyborg. On Wednesday, Gabe Rivera, the site’s founder, announced that he had hired a human editor to oversee the site. Since the site’s debut in 2005, Techmeme has organized breaking news stories and blog posts using software that determines importance, primarily based on the number of links to a story. But occasionally the system would err by, for example, bumping old headlines up to the top of the site. Mr. Rivera said he began developing a human-guided editorial interface last year specifically ...
Resolved: Humans Are Good at Editing Stuff
Technologizer —
... though not near the top. But I was a Techmeme admirer before anything I wrote had ever shown up there.) Among the things I like about Techmeme is that it has a personality. It may be a bot that chooses and arranges content via math, but it’s never felt soulless or impersonal–it’s been more like a smart, well-informed buddy who has a definite take on what’s important. Today, founder Rivera made headlines–on, appropriately enough, Techmeme–by saying that his site’s algorithm isn’t smart enough . He’s hired journalist ...
TechMeme gets a helping (human) hand
L.A. Times Tech Blog —
... There is quite a bit of sturm und drang about TechMeme's decision to stop relying purely on its secret algorithm sauce and hire a human editor to help make sure more relevant news tops the popular technology news site. ...
Linkpost | 12.4.2008
TechBlog —
... - It wasn't the right time, and Twitter still wanted to make some money. Fancy that! • Guess what? Automated news doesn't quite work - Well, I could have told Gabe Rivera that! Techmeme adds a human editor. Posted by Dwight at December 4, 2008 06:05 AM Comments Post a comment Please use a valid e-mail address . We don't harvest addresses, you will not be spammed and your address will not be publicly visible. But if I have a question about your comment, I need to be able to contact you. Thank you. URL: Remember Me? Yes No Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style) ...
Techmeme Puts Users First
WebProNews Feed —
... The fact of the matter is, the site is Rivera's to do anything he pleases. He doesn't have to please bloggers and other content producers who are unhappy with the changes. He's making an effort to make the site better, and that is for the readers. By turning to a human-edited approach, Techmeme is: - Avoiding obsolete news - Improving "related" grouping - making it easier to post "breaking" news stories Rivera discusses all of this in his announcement of the changes. He writes: In 2005 it was clear to me that an ideal news aggregation site would need to combine automation ...
So Robots Can’t Do Everything After All [GigaOM]
GigaOM Network —
... . He has just admitted that the algorithms he uses to find the latest hot news haven’t been working all that well, and that as a result, he has added the services of a (gasp!) human being to the mix to try and improve things. That would be Megan McCarthy, a former writer for Wired.com and the gossip site Valleywag. ...
Google Reader Gets A Facelift, Still No Ads (GOOG)
Silicon Alley Insider —
... introduced into Gmail.
You can now hide "unread counts," if you're the type who gets anxious seeing "1000+ Unread Items."
Google is introducing machine-generated "feed bundles," where Google tries to automatically group together similarly themed RSS feeds. We haven't played with this too much yet and we doubt we will. Google Blog Search tries something similar and it doesn't work very well. Even the automated news experts at Techmeme have concluded human editorial input is indispensible.
But what's notable in this Google Reader ...
Marketing News Roundup, December 3-4
Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim —
... Techmeme gives up—sorta. Admitting that “Automated news doesn’t quite work,” the news aggregator announces it’s hiring a human editor. ...
Techmeme transforms as man meets machine
Technology: Technology blog | guardian.co.uk —
... Yesterday its creator, Gabe Rivera, shocked some followers by announcing that he was going to hire an editor for the site to help improve its coverage. "Guess what?" he wrote, "Automated news doesn't quite work". The reaction was fairly mixed, but some true believers weren't happy (TechCrunch's Michael Arrington called it ...
The Semi-Human Techmeme: A Month Later
CenterNetworks —
... founder Gabe Rivera announced that he hired an editor, Megan McCarthy, to help create a more "edited" Techmeme. Gabe noted in his announcement, "an additional human editor will carry out changes explicitly to directly improve the mix of headlines on Techmeme. Though the implicit edits conveyed via algorithm outnumber the explicit edits perhaps by 1000 to 1 or more, the impact of the human editor is nonetheless pronounced". ...
A New Way To Get Stories onto Techmeme. Tweet them.
The Next Web —
... announced they would be bumping up the “human editing” aspect of Techmeme which had previously been known as an automated site with news selected based on a carefully calculated algorithm - looks like they’re going to be busy. ...
How to Make Sure That TechMeme Links to your Blog
Digital Inspiration - Technology Blog —
Techmeme founder Gabe Rivera earlier recommended that the best way to get Techmeme love your blog is through original content, descriptive titles and link love - i.e., you should send some traffic to Techmeme and they he may consider including your site among other Techmeme elites.
That was 2006 and obviously lot of things have changed since then.
Gabe diversified from the "computers decide everything" model and appointed a couple of human editors (Megan McCarthy and Omer Horvitz) who ensure ...
Techmeme's New Editor: An Interview with Megan McCarthy
ReadWriteWeb —
... Megan: Techmeme is biased and has been so for a while. If you read Gabe's post announcing the addition of an editor, he makes that point. ...
Google Blog Search Gets Faster, More Accurate
Mashable! —
... , although it should be noted that a pure algorithmic approach takes a back seat to a combination of algorithm-based cluster creation and human editing, which is exactly what Techmeme has done in their latest major update. ...
