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NewsGator converted its popular RSS feed aggregation clients to freeware in January 2008, and now that seed has borne fruit: recommended fruit, to be precise.
 NewsGator's new Recommended Stories filter introduces users to stories and feeds they aren't already subscribed to, but might like. (Credit: NewsGator)
Partnering with Uprizer Labs' SenseArray, a collaborative filter, NewsGator now offers live RSS feed recommendations from feeds that the user hasn't already subscribed to. Currently available only on the online NewsGator client, the filter pulls information from NewsGator as well as its sibling desktop clients, FeedDemon for Windows and NetNewsWire for the Mac so that any user who synchronizes their RSS data will be contributing to the list of recommendations.
Brian Kellner, NewsGator's Vice-President of Products, compared the process to more common Web-based ratings systems. "It takes attention from the client or online site, just like your rating on Amazon, but you're rating it but with attention." By marking a post as read, you're telling the filter that you like it. Enough people do that, and if the post matches your interest, and it might be suggested to you as news you haven't seen yet.
Kellner said that NewsGator will be making two kinds of recommendations. The first is a general news category, "wide-open," as he put it, but limited to posts from the past two days. The second is narrowed down to categories, such as entertainment or sports, and more heavily utilizes the SenseArray filters. These more specific recommendations are limited to not more than a week old, and should be adjustable to the tastes of the user.
The challenge, Kellner added, was how to recommend current stories that users aren't already getting. "We pull in six million events per week that we think are relevant," but the system won't be perfect initially. "Over time we'll see what adjustments we need to make."
NewsGator does have plans to push the recommendations feature out to its desktop clients, but there isn't a timeline for that, yet.
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