Where do you go for late and breaking news? Your RSS reader? Google search or Google news? Your Google Reader? Perhaps you frequent Twitter or Digg. What about Techmeme or Alltop? When it comes to breaking news consumption, there is a growing number of people that have become rather obsessed with getting there first, in part due to the technology that allows us to communicate at break-neck speeds, and in part due to the economy that has sprouted up around blogging an a blogger’s ability to break news. Layer this in with traffic, ad sales and an air of recognition, and it becomes a blogger’s dream, realized only by their ability to stay on top of news.
So while Techfuga, a relatively unknown Techmeme competitor, shut down its site for repairs and a rebuild unawares to many outside the very early adopters, we’re still reminded that the breaking news industry could use a little competition. With the varying sources from which a person could garner breaking news, the combined resources of many of these services could be an improvement to consumers. For the services themselves, however, it’s been a difficult shift to make.
The shift I speak of is a changing of hands from the way we’ve searched web content for the past decade, to an instant gratification of real time search results. It’s yet another dimension by which we can prioritize news and all of web content for that matter. With platforms such as social bookmarking sites, meme-specific search engines and microblogging platforms, the ability to get news out fast to a wide range of people, we can actually filter news based on how long it’s been “out there.”
Perhaps this changing mentality is what has spurred Techfuga’s retreat. Maybe the relaunched product we’ll see will hinge even more so on the ability to search the web for relevant content gleaned from the newest possible resources out there. It’s especially important as many realtime search engines are launched by and for specific services. Which means that competition is necessary for not only breaking news but for real time search overall.
We’re still trying to figure out the best way to parse realtime search and present it in the most valuable way possible. The concept is still new and shiny as far as current implementation goes, but there’s still a ways to go before it provides the optimal amount of value to consumers. Perhaps the right implementation on these fronts could help Techfuga gain recognition and become the necessary resource in all our lives.
[via TC]