Feed Filtering with aideRSS

aideRSS is a feed filtering and classification system that was recently showcased on Read/WriteWeb. As usual, the RW writeup is in depth and the insights and the research are useful in understanding the purpose and the use of aideRSS. aideRSS uses a proprietary “PostRank” algorithm to categorize and rank the posts on a certain blog and gives a reader the ability to filter the most important and most attention grabbing topics from any feed or blog. PostRank is particular to each blog’s statistics and is not a universal algorithm. The resulting ranked lists can then be subscribed through any regular feedreader. For example, the “best posts” from WeblogToolsCollection’s feed are available through this feed.

You can perform a similar analysis on your blog by using the simple search on the main page. You can also use the service to filter the feeds that you read in order to reduce clutter (you can import your OPML file). The service also provides widgets that you can embed on your own blog that allows your readers to make the same choices. RW touts that the real benefit of the service will be realized when the service is able to track reader behavior and provide insights into what makes readers tick.

I think the service is interesting from a social networking and reader tracking perspective and it can be useful to find counts of most the social bookmarking links on one page. However, I think that as a way of tracking interesting posts, it provides information that I, as an involved blogger, already have had through simpler means. I already know which of my posts struck a chord with my readers and which posts tanked. (among other things, if you are a registered user on weblogtoolscollection.com and are logged in, you should see the number of times each post was visited) I see little benefit in offering a “best posts” widget to readers for the obvious reasons. In addition, if you are like me and you read feeds to get the latest information as quickly as possible, waiting for a post to become popular and show up on aideRSS would take too much time. It might be useful for those that read feeds like newspapers and use them as a consolidated, summarized version of the daily news.

Would you find a use for aideRSS in your blogging life?