This week we continue our summary of Pollack Media Group’s yearly comprehensive look at media trends, The New Media Landscape: 2007. Over the next few weeks, we will publish a summary of the various sections of the report. If you are interested in a full copy of the report, you can request one by e-mailing hq@pollackmedia.com.
Filtering Content
The content on the Internet is so overwhelming that ways of filtering it are an absolute necessity.
Several new and revolutionary content filters are breaking through to help users navigate the overwhelming amount of content on the net.
While traditional content filters are focused on the choices of individuals, from movie critics to radio music directors, the new filters are experimenting with leveraging community and technology.Community filtering encompasses a wide range of approaches.
• There are news aggregation sites like Digg.com, where its community of users filter content with a simple thumbs up/thumbs down vote.
• On the horizon are more community filters, including those created to do just that one thing: To leverage a community of people to act specifically as content filters, replacing the individual critic or reviewer.
One of the primary benefits of being a content filter is the traffic and reach you achieve.
As we see with Amazon, presenting the filter that leads to a content sale is a powerful way to create revenue, as well.
Collaborative filtering, when a community recommends something to you based on your tastes and how they compare with others in the community, will grow aggressively in 2007.
A striking new way of looking at content is being presented by filters that use technology. Whether based on historical usage or some kind of genome, technology filters all use mathematical algorithms to predict what people will like.
