Content Will Be Socially Filtered

Rafe Needleman has published a scathing review of the soon to be released Netvibes “Ginger.” The new version has become much more social by providing users with a “universe” page that is “a public, shared collection of widgets and tabs that anyone can access.” When speaking with Tariq Krim, CEO of Netvibes earlier last year, I had mentioned that this would be a great feature and I still think it will be.

Google recently released the social version of Google Reader and I have to admit that I have found that feature to be extremely useful. Enabling me to view content that my friends have read is extremely valuable. Given that I have thousands and thousands of feed items but only a few hundred items from my friends over the past week, it makes it much easier to cut through the noise.

There is more content on the web then any of us can consume and crowdsourcing models have become one of the most effective models for filtering the content. Sites like Digg, Del.icio.us and other social news sites provide valuable services to people with limited time (all of us). The only flaw in the crowdsourcing model is that if the crowd doesn’t have similar interests to you, the content that makes it through the system may not be to your liking.

As a result, you can turn to your friends who share similar interests. In turn, your content will be more more effectively targeted and you can rapidly find interesting content that is of interest to you. It’s pretty straightforward and I think Rafe missed the ball on this one. Do you think filtering content socially is most effective?