aNewDomain.net — Finding fresh, interesting items on the interwebs can be quite the challenge. We all love the usual social media services and news feeds, but there’s so much content that we never get to see. Popular services such as Reddit and Digg offer up web discovery, but there’s another service that is making noise on the search front: Flipora.
How It Works
Let’s say you spend a lot of time querying your favorite sports team (in my case, the Clemson Tigers) or the next hot HDR photographer. Your search can be hit or miss in terms of relevant content, or content that is not already saturated. This is when Flipora steps in.
As you’re surfing the web, the Flipora browser extension not only looks at your previous browsing history (as defined in the terms of service) but also your current, real-time web browsing. If you’re checking out the Green Bay Packers’ site for some training camp news Flipora will recommend another source, such as the Bleacher Report, because it has an inside scoop.
The recommendation appears via a pop-up window. Below is an example based on researching self-driving cars from Google. Notice the pop-up. The term “pop-up” has a bad connotation in personal computing, but you can simply turn them off in the browser extension’s configuration.
Image credit: Ant Pruitt for aNewDomain.net
The browser extension is just one way of using Flipora. You can also access the search engine through its own website. Flipora’s site poses a familiar search interface but will still work intelligently while recommending content based on your current mood and current searches — not just your search history.
Image credit: Ant Pruitt for aNewDomain.net
You can also set up preferences notifying Flipora of the specific type of content you’re interested in, as well as connect with other like-minded users. At the time of writing, Flipora boasts over 29 million users.
Image credit: Ant Pruitt for aNewDomain.net
Right now Flipora requires a Facebook account. From a business standpoint, it makes a lot of sense. Flipora can tap into over 500 million users. Signing in with other social media services or an email address is next.
Flipora looks to tailor content discovery to your specific interests — not to what your friends share on Facebook. Its intelligence loop aims to bring you the content you want. Flipora CO-CEO Vijay Krishnan says,
You are in the driver’s seat, and Flipora’s recommendation engine scours the web to bring you the best content you want to see right now.”
We know that’s what the Internet is all about, what we can see “right now.” Give Flipora a test run for yourself. Leave me a comment below on your experience with the service.
I’m Ant Pruitt here on aNewDomain.net.
Based in Charlotte, NC, Ant Pruitt is an IT pro, a columnist and a senior technologist at aNewDomain.net and aNewDomainTV. Look for Ant on his Smartphone Photographers Community and on Yet Another Tech Show. Follow him @ihavnolyfe or via Google+. Email him at Ant@aNewDomain.net. See all Ant’s articles on aNewDomain.net by following this link.
