Why Aggregators are Making News Easier to Get, and Understand

One of the problems facing journalists and the public recently is information overload. 1.73 billions people use the internet every day, sending 247 billion emails and 27.43 million tweets DAILY, and visiting 234 websites (Pingdom2010). Aggregators help web users to filter through all of the information on the net, filtering it down to what they’re looking for and reducing information overload. Many users describe their aggregators as “as indispensable as their e-mail client,” (Singel 2003).

In on a study done by the REVEAL THIS project, they determined the most desirable qualities of news aggregator services, according to users.
1. Advanced search functionalities
2. User-friendly interface
3. Quality and reputation of sources
4. Capability of searching back in time
5. Browsing functionalities
6. Display of results in chronological order
7. Personalization features
8. Availability for free (Chowdhury 2006).

What are some other benefits of news aggregators? Posts can be organized by key words; if you write an article and tag it with all of the possible tags your readers may be looking for, you could get greater exposure. Google sends news outlets around 100,000 hits per minute (Kirby 2010). Many aggregators, such as Digg, have a “share button” that allows you to share the story with friends. Content sent to you is not dumped in a pile in your email box but organized by your RSS reader, and you control what comes to you so no more spam.

They are particularly convenient for people who consume a lot of information on the web. “I’m a voracious reader and I built the software because I couldn’t stand the web without it. The demand for aggregators is just going to tip over at some point and go wild,” according to Brent Simmons, creator of NetNewsWire. That interview is from 2003, and it could be said that that time has already come. Twitter is simply a micro-blog aggregator, and Twitter has 175 million registered users (including me). Despite the great benefits of aggregators and RSS feeds, there have been arguments emerging against it. But, before we go into that, it is important to have an understanding of the laws concerning news aggregation.