Overview of useful content services to combat information overload

Friends, we all share a craving for something new, interesting and exciting. We exchange notes, articles, photos, videos, graphics and even program code. Social networks and services “help” us this year.

But, the more information falls on us, the more time we spend to find something really useful. How productive are we doing this time? At 100%? Most likely no. We are constantly distracted by advertising, recommendation blocks and other information noise. Attention is scattered and you have to spend more and more energy on its concentration. In a word - XXI century. The age of information overload .
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But, if there is an overload problem, then there must be a solution. One of the solutions, apart from the radical disconnection of the cable, can be considered automatic filtering and content selection for you.

This question is partially closed by services for filtering, organizing and recommending content, or in one word its “curation”. Content curation services there are many. All of them are based on different principles, but the essence is the same - increasing the effectiveness of your presence on the Web.

Next, I will give a number of analogs selected with an eye on useful, but not the most famous services. No monsters like Delicious or StumbleUpon will be listed. The purpose of the review is not only to show specific tools, but also to raise the theme of the fact that “content curation” is a noticeable global trend, which, for some reason, did not find adequate support in Russia.

So, let's go:



Redux is a powerful service for working with video materials. Allows you to group, share in open access and even sell videos. To date, not only the web version has been launched, but also the version for Smart-TV. Channel navigation is as simple as possible and, as the creators say, all videos are hand-picked by the community of service curators.



Blekko is a search engine, the distinctive feature of which are slashtags. Each slash tag is a kind of channel. Most of these channels are created by experts, but you can create your own slash tag, after a simple registration procedure.



BagTheWeb - here you can create a “bag” or, if you like, a “bag” (bag) with links on a specific topic, adding them right while surfing. The data site allows users to link storage with each other and build their own content structure from “bags”, i.e. visually streamline a large amount of information on any topic.



BlogBridge is an open-source software (not a web service) for real infomaniacs who need an RSS feed management tool. Not bad, if you need to work simultaneously with a large number of sources, tens and hundreds of blogs, but if you need a tool to just read a few tapes in the evening, use the usual Google Reader.



Paperly - allows you to create from the news feeds Facebook, Twitter and RSS a kind of "newspaper", which according to the creators should make the reading process much more pleasant. You can build your “newspapers” into a blog, website or share them with your friends in the social. networks. Very similar to the Flipboard idea.



Pearltrees - the main “chip” is an interface built on radial tree structures with “pearl nodes”. When you hover the cursor on such "pearls" you get a preview of the proposed content, you can add them to yourself, comment or share with friends.



Feedly is an “steroids” RSS reader that allows you to classify sources and customize everything to get the most important news to you. Syncs with Google Reader. In addition to filters by source, there is also a search by tags. The interface is sharpened entirely for mobile platforms, even the Web version looks like an application for a tablet.



My6Sense is Android and Windows Phone apps (iOS is not supported), which allows you to mix all social feeds into one. What is noteworthy here is that here you do not need to set your own settings or give any detailed feedback, as in most content curation services. “Artificial Intelligence” understands itself, which is most valuable to you, ranking the news according to your behavior within the application.



Instapaper is a service for postponing pages for further reading. One of those simple tools, after use, which you find that you can no longer do without it. Works in the web, on iOS-devices and Kindle. A good alternative to Pocket.



iFlow is another advanced RSS reader. It allows you not just to read tapes, but to connect several sources into one “stream” on a specific topic. You can not only create your own, but also read other people's “streams”, of which there are now about two hundred on topics from nanotechnology to the latest Gucci collections. In general, it is quite a convenient thing to distribute information flows by topic and immediately see the big picture.



Trapit (beta) is another content “personalizer”. It is only necessary to drive keywords into the search bar, after which the service will understand exactly what interests you. The creators promise that the robot will constantly monitor changes in your interests. The main advantage of the service is that it personalizes content for a single topic, which allows you to expect more accurate results.



Addictomatic is really cool, despite its simplicity, an application that allows you to instantly create a dashboard with news on a specific topic from several sources, but unlike iFlow, this is more a search engine than a reader. Sources can only be selected from the set that provides the service, but they are quite enough to see the big picture on almost any topic.



PostPost (beta) - is looking for relevant content on the people you read on Twitter: links, photos, news and reviews that are constantly lost in the usual search and a simple review of the news feed. PostPost collects all links from your feed and ranks it according to your interests.



Sufringbird is the Russian equivalent of StumbleUpon, a recommender system that helps you by pressing one single Surf button to find interesting pages. The main advantage compared with the foreign counterpart is the ability to connect VKontakte. Great service to kill some time. Press the button, get the result.



LikeHack (alpha) is the second Russian service in this list, representing in fact two services in one: a personal link repository and a content recommendation system. The first will help organize all links by category, time, source. The second is to provide you with interesting content, according to preferences and interests. The service is quite interesting, although it still works imperfectly.

In conclusion, in this article I tried to list the tools that not only bloggers and journalists can use, but also any person in order to save time and improve their own productivity. Use on health!

PS I suggest to all those who are not indifferent in the comments to leave options for similar services that you personally use.