Sorry about that headline. It just seems that every medium is getting its own "what's hot" feed these days. Even Twitterheads are getting in the act, with the new Twitlinks (review), which I find of dubious value. I mean, really, we're talking about Twitter here, not the New York Times. But the newly relaunched ReadBurner looks like it could, possibly, become genuinely useful.
It's a simple service. It tracks the number of times items are shared in Google's RSS Reader, and puts the most-recently popular stories (assuming sharing means popularity) at the top of the list. Commentary items also get linked in, Techmeme-like. To round things out, it also lets you access your Google Reader feed from within the Web site.
Currently, ReadBurner is a great way to track news about ReadBurner.
If you assume Google Reader speaks for blog article popularity, ReadBurner makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately, while Google Reader is a very strong RSS client, there are many smart people on the Web who have alternate methods for reading their feeds (I use Netvibes, although I'm not sure if that makes me a smart person or just different).
The data in the ReadBurner service seems a bit sparse right now, indicating that relying on Google Reader as an arbiter of what's hot may not be the killer model in this space. However, ReadBurner does not suffer from the pile-on effect that you see in Techmeme, where articles get regurgitated in follow-up blog posts until there's nothing left to say about the topic at all. So check out ReadBurner if you're looking for another source of What's Hotness.
A lot of folks would like a memetracker for Google Reader (myself included), and if the big G's not going to provide one, it's up to third-party developers to attempt to build their own. One of the results has been ReadBurner, a service that tries to determine what items (not just feeds) are gaining in popularity at any given time based on the number of people sharing them on Google Reader.
Think of it like Del.icio.us, but instead of browser plug-ins or voting from the content originator's site, the system picks up on items automatically--that is, assuming people are clicking the little share button underneath a story in Reader. There's even an upcoming section for the items that aren't quite "front page" material but are picking up steam. The hope is that you'll be able to find some great, read-worthy content and keep an eye on the "pulse" of what people are sharing.
It's something Google could do a whole lot better if it harnessed every single publicly shared item and put them on a page. ReadBurner's solution it to gather its shared items from several hundred (hand-picked) influential Google Reader users in order to show what they think is noteworthy, similar to what TechMeme does with news stories.
In a chat with Mashable, developer Alexander Marktl noted that the site's in its very beginnings and open to change. If I could suggest anything it would be community inclusion--the option to add your own shared feed into the mix. Right now ReadBurner's working off its own list (which is currently down), that leans towards technology aficionados. It would be nice to be able to add your own to feel as if you're a part of it.
See who's sharing a story on Google Reader and how many folks are doing it with ReadBurner.
(Credit: CNET Networks)[via Mashable]
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