PostRank

On Monday, we welcomed James Stewart to the AideRSS team. (Go ahead, get the Jimmy Stewart jokes out of your system, we’ll wait…) I would have blogged about him then, but the powers that be had his nose to the grindstone with real work right away, and he didn’t have time to lie on the questionnaire I sent him until now. Did you know he was the inspiration for Tom Cruise’s character in Top Gun? Ride into the danger zone…

Anyway, James (he goes by James, plus we already have a Jim) will be focusing on design and user interface matters, helping us tell our story as clearly and elegantly as possible. He may also get shanghai’d into helping update the video tutorials, cuz Melle’s sneaky like that… (Shh!)

And, of course, we’ll insist that he photoshop any and all employee photos so we look like movie stars. We are also relying on him to be a ringer in the annual Tech Capital foosball tournament. (As honoured as we were by winning the crappiest team award last year, we don’t want to bogart all the ignominious glory.)

James is no newb to the startup space, and has a background that includes both the corporate and agency side of things. Surprisingly enough, he wears colours other than black, and doesn’t really seem to have much ennui going for him. He does scribble in a Moleskine, though, so he’s not completely devoid of cred.

Like Melle, James is a local who got edumacated in Toronto, but has been back in the KW area since he became a grown up working type. (Plus he likes it here.) Unlike Melle, he comes down firmly on the ninja side of the pirates vs. ninjas debate.

Like many design geeks, James’ interests while not at work include… more design. He’s also a fan of classic cars and unique aircraft, but lacking vast independent wealth he does not yet own a fleet of either. (Though Trevor might let him play with his LEGO car…)

We’re thrilled to have him here — welcome, James!

Our most valuable resource is our community, and so we wanted to make PostRank Discovery even more functional, flexible, and friendly for you all.

We’re excited to announce that global topics are now user-editable, and both those and users’ topics can now be filtered.

Note: You must have a PostRank account and you must be logged in in order to edit or filter topics.

Add a New Feed to a Global Topic

If you have a great blog (yours or someone else’s) that’s missing from a global topic — like Photography or Moms or Social Media — you can add it easily.

On PostRank.com, if you’re not already on the global topic page, type the topic name into the search field at the top right of the page, and select the topic from the results that drop down.

On the global topic page, click Manage in the right sidebar. The Add Feed field will appear at the top of the page above the list of the topic’s feeds. Type or paste the feed URL you want to add to the topic into the Add Feed field.

As you type, a list of suggested feeds will appear. Any suggested feeds that are not already included in the global topic will have a green plus symbol icon to the right. To add one of those feeds to the topic, simply click it to auto-fill the Add Feed field.

Once you’re done, click the Save Changes button above the Add Feed field. A confirmation message will appear at the top of page to verify that the new feed has been added.

Remove a Feed from a Global Topic

If you notice a feed (yours or someone else’s) in a global topic that doesn’t belong there (off-topic, an out of date site, etc.), you can remove it easily.

On PostRank.com, if you’re not already on the global topic page, type the topic name into the search field at the top right of the page, and select the topic from the results that drop down.

On the global topic page, click Manage in the right sidebar. To the right of each of the feeds in that topic’s list there is a delete checkbox. To select feeds for deletion, simply check the box for all the ones you want to remove. Each feed selected for deletion will be highlighted in red.

Once you’re done, click the Save Changes button above the Add Feed field. A confirmation message will appear at the top of page to verify that the feed(s) has been removed from that global topic.

Viewing and Filtering Posts in a Topic

You can now view the aggregated posts from the feeds in one of your own topics, or in a global topic. To view and/or filter a global topic, on PostRank.com, if you’re not already on the global topic page, type the topic name into the search field at the top right of the page, and select the topic from the results that drop down.

To view and/or filter one of your own topics, click topics from the menu at the top right corner of the page, and then click the topic you want to view.

When the Topic page loads, click the Posts link in the right sidebar. The content on the page will reload, displaying a list of posts rather than a list of feeds. (These are the most recent posts from all the feeds in that topic feed.)

At the top left of the page you can select a filtering level from the drop-down: All, Good, Great, or Best. Once you select one of those options, the list of posts will automatically update accordingly and hide posts that have PostRank scores that fall below the selected filtering level.

If you like, you can then share or export that filtered topic feed using any of the sharing or exporting functions in the right sidebar.

View Global Topic Activity

We’ve also added an Activity function in the right sidebar, which shows you what changes have been made to a topic over time, and by whom.

We’ve given you even greater control over finding, sharing, and Reading What Matters. And lots of folks continue to create and curate their own lists, and find great people and topics to follow in the community.

In conjunction, as we announced with the launch of the PostRank Twitter Newsroom last week, you can subscribe to any of the Global Topics in Twitter, even if you don’t have a PostRank account.

As always, please let us know if you have any questions, confusions, or feedback, by email, Twitter, or Get Satisfaction.

The folks at AdvertisingAge released their latest Power150 list this morning, which now features the power of PostRank analysis!

There are already some noticeable changes in the listings, and we’re hoping our real-time analysis will keep the rankings current and interesting for a long time to come. Our congratulations to the bloggers on the list! (We’re not even playing favourites with the Canadians.)

The AdAge blog post has a great explanation of how and why they integrated PostRank into their analysis, and what it brings to the list and its rankings:

Why’s PostRank so great? For one, unlike other metrics, they provide real-time data. We’ll only be grabbing it once a day like any other metric, but you can be reasonably sure that your recent hot post will be accounted for. But here’s an even bigger reason: we have a specific time window. For each blog, we’re grabbing PostRank scores for only the previous 30 days, an intentionally small window of time. We wanted to make the Power 150 more dynamic and current, and, by basing 1/3 of your overall score on recent activity, we’re hoping this will affect rankings in three ways:

Level the playing field a bit. If you’re a king now, you could be demoted within 30 days. If you’re at the bottom, you could enter the upper reaches yourself within a month, if you do well enough. Of course, the latter still won’t be easy, but hopefully not the insurmountable task it once was, because recent successes will count for more and long-accrued success a little less.

Encourage people to keep up with their blogs. If you stop blogging for a month (as some of you have — tsk, tsk), your score will suffer. We don’t necessarily want to punish you for taking a break, but we think those who are still active and working should have an advantage.

Give a better picture of what’s happening now. We want the Power 150 to be a more dynamic place, a better reflection of the fluidity of conversations on the web rather than a calcified “Who’s Who.” It’s a pretty lofty goal, but this our best shot so far.

Additionally, there’s more information here, as well as a chance to win Power150 prizes!

We’re thrilled to be a key part of the Power150 analysis and list, and we hope we can help keep the list timely and relevant and help people even more to Read What Matters.

Hot on the heels of the release of PostRank Discovery we’re excited to announce the launch of our PostRank Twitter Newsroom!

Now, in addition to finding great feeds, topics, and publishers on postrank.com, you can follow any and all of your news “Twopics” on Twitter.

Twopics include the top news stories from around the web in topic areas ranging from Ruby to Green to Moms, all dynamically filtered, ranked, and updated by PostRank.

Can’t find your favourite Twopic? Create it, add some source feeds, and share it with your friends and community. Have a great news feed that’s not yet included in your favourite Twopic? Add it as a news source and share it with everyone!

Check out the stories in some of these Twopics:

@pr_entrepreneur

@pr_politics

@pr_health

Don’t have a PostRank account? No problem, any Twitter user can follow a Twopic in the PostRank Newsroom.

For a complete list of Twopics visit the PostRank Twitter Newsroom page. We’re launching with the 50 most engaging Twopic areas and will be adding new ones daily. (And we hope you’ll all add your favourite topics, too!)

The PostRank Twitter Newsroom makes the most socially engaging content on the web easy and accessible. Find and Read What Matters.

For more information on PostRank Discovery:

PostRank delivers the best blog discovery engine!
Introduction to PostRank Discovery

One of the questions (and frustrations) we regularly hear is “How do I find…?” The volume of material published online continues to grow at an incredible rate. People have to cobble together tools and spend a lot of time monitoring, researching, and keeping up with personal and professional interests.

We need a single resource that enables folks to:

• discover the most timely, relevant, and engaging content online
• search and segment content by specific topic areas
• find and follow the most interesting and influential publishers
• create and share reading lists of your favourite feeds
• subscribe to others’ lists to enjoy automatically updated, topic-specific content.

The PostRank Discovery engine delivers it all.

I want to learn about digital photography.

I want to share my reading list with my network, but what’s the best way?

These are a few examples of questions that PostRank Discovery helps you answer and the activities it helps you accomplish. And, as we discussed yesterday, we have a greater need for good curation online than ever before.

Community members have also expressed concerns about how to balance using technology to manage information overload, while at the same time not missing the hidden gems that are out there.

We’ve solved that problem by using the PostRank technology to better enable you to connect with great content AND the expand the power of your network. (After all, we automatically gravitate towards those we know and trust to glean info and get recommendations.)

View and subscribe to dynamically analyzed and updated lists by specific topic area, streamlining your monitoring, research, and personal development efforts.

Individuals and companies can find out which influencers and subject matter experts have been most engaging their audiences with their content. And readers and publishers like you can share reading lists, creating and curating resources on topics of interest. (Online there are communities around everything.)

Best of all, PostRank Discovery’s automation means that the lists are always up to date. Audience engagement metrics are gathered and analyzed in real-time, so ranked and filtered lists always show whose content is the most engaging right now. Find out who the up-and-coming voices are to harness the latest news and freshest ideas.

Additionally, ranking trends are displayed, so users can see how publishers have been doing with engagement over time — are they ambitious movers who’ve jumped from 10th to 1st? Or have they not been publishing much and have slipped from 2nd to 13th?

Users who subscribe to others’ lists enjoy timely, relevant, and engaging resources that require no manual maintenance. Reap the value of others’ passionate interest in topics — the user who creates the list curates it, customizing the settings and adding or pruning content. So unlike your RSS reader, you don’t have to go through your feeds from time to time to remove dead sites.

We’re members of the online community ourselves, and voracious information consumers. So we get how hard it can be to keep up sometimes, and how much work it is to find the best content. We also know how helpful our friends and colleagues can be for answering questions, sharing information, and keeping us entertained.

PostRank Discovery is the obvious evolution in how we find and consume information online. We’ve combined web technology and passionately curious people to provide the best of both worlds. Find the information and authors you’re interested in quickly and easily, share your great finds, AND have access to the resources other people value, too.

We think it’s a great step forward in how people discover, consume, and share content online, and we hope you’ll be as excited about it as we are!

Head on over and take a look, or check out our Introduction to PostRank Discovery page for a quick start overview.