There's a new content discovery site going into private beta today: Thoof. The concept is that it knows who you are, where you are, and what you like, and picks online sites and stories for you based on that information.
Thoof users still have to submit stories to the site, and right now the only way to do that is to paste a URL into the system. That will slow down submissions, compared to having a bookmarklet or a similar quick-add feature. But I like the idea of an aggregation site that treats me as an individual, not just part of a crowd of users.
Thoof picks stories it thinks you'll like. (Screenshot edited for clarity.)
CEO Ian Clarke says Thoof knows what you're going to like, "from the first moment you visit the site." There's a lot of information feeding into the system. For example, it takes all the information your browser passes to it, such as your platform and IP (which it uses to take a stab at your physical location), and correlates that with items that other similar people have clicked on. Of course, it also records what you click on, but it doesn't yet develop a profile based on your Web history outside of Thoof or from other clues you leave on your system.
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