fav.or.it: the news reader goes social

Now this is a nice idea. Like many people without better things to do in their lives, I’m a Google Reader addict. It does a finer job of allowing you to swallow vast dollops of information in single sitting than any other tool out there. It has even given birth to a new term - ‘river reading’ (if you use it already, you’ll know why).

But it has a flaw. You can share the stories you read with others (cleverly, it automatically creates a web page featuring those tales that could can show others). But you can’t actually discuss the stories in real time.Enter fav.or.it, stage left. Still in private beta, this new service aims to inject the real-time social element into newsreaders. It describes itself as a ‘mashup of newsgroups, forums, search engine and reader’, and the early screenshots suggest they’re close to delivered exactly that.The concept of a live global debate around the news as it happens may be nothing new (the ability to comment quickly on news stories has been around for yonks - just look at the BBC or USAToday), but fav.or.it may take it one stage further.

fav.or.it - Slicing the web



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This is the personal website of Mark Payton, digital editorial director at Haymarket Consumer Media.