New Anonymous-Sharing App Wants to Apply the Netflix Algorithm to Content

With so much content being produced online, it's hard to stand out as a digital publisher to your target crowd. Heard, a new anonymous social sharing app, believes it has solved the discovery problem. The platform applies the Netflix algorithm for films and TV shows to online content, ideally predicting preferences based on previous choices—and it's already convinced Funny or Die and Huffington Post to come on board. "You have so many different social media outlets; there's really no solution (for discovery)," Heard vp of product and strategy Benjamin Goodman explained. "Now, you can dump all your content you have on Heard, and our algorithm takes over." Heard will be competing alongside nine other tech companies at the SXSW Interactive Release It competition on March 13 in Austin, Texas. The platform was built under the expert eyes of Heard CTO Ruben Kleiman, who was one of the architects of Netflix's recommendation algorithm, and Heard CEO Dave Vronay, who worked in social computing at Microsoft. Vronay said the company came up with the idea after realizing that people often searched for movies starring the same actor, and that model could be applied to online media. The platform works like Netflix, in the sense that it sections platform users into like-minded groups of up to 300 users. For example, people who like reading stories about U.S. politics will see the same recommendations, while those who like My Little Pony will see another bucket of choices—but both... Continue reading at 'AdWeek'

[ AdWeek | 2015-03-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #online media #single person #institutional knowledge #desktop version #interesting things

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Maverick backs bedtime story app

A new story reading app will launch later this month with nine picture books from publisher... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2014-01-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Personalised digital magazine app Flipboard aims for 150 million users

Company plans enhanced discovery and search tools to explore the 5m magazines already createdPersonalised digital magazine app Flipboard is aiming to pass 150 million users in 2014, thanks to enhanced discovery and search tools that will allow users to better explore the 5m individual online... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2014-01-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Actor Who Played Chewbacca Shared A Ton Of "Star Wars" Set Photos On Twitter And They Are Amazing

Thrill to the sight of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker raising a toast in honor of Sir Alec Guiness's birthday!Today in vaguely surreal photographs: Peter Mayhew, the 7'3" actor and mainstay of the traveling sci-fi/comic book convention circuit whose claim to fame is being the man inside the... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2014-01-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Knewton Adds Cengage to Content Pool

Knewton, a company that specializes in adaptive learning technology that tracks student use and personalizes instructional content, has reached an agreement with Cengage Learning, an educational and professional publisher, to integrate Knewton software into Cengage’s higher education content. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-01-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Scribd Responds to Writer Beware on Pirated Content

A Scribd executive acknowledged the problem of pirated content on Scribd and also outlined the company's efforts to prevent unauthorized uploads. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-01-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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PFD takes majority share in Pollinger

Peters Fraser & Dunlop (PFD) has become a majority shareholder of authors’ agency... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2014-01-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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2014 Predictions - Industry leaders share their views

Tom Weldon, c.e.o. Penguin Random House UK Lessons from 2013 include: the shift to online sales... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2014-01-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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An app to check your cholesterol is the latest way smartphones are evolving into medical devices

On mobile phones, health, and fitness are rapidly becoming big business. The latest idea? A concept from researchers at Cornell which demonstrates how your phone could be used to check your cholesterol levels, no visit to the lab required. In a paper published in the medical technology journal... Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2013-12-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Holiday Catalogs Data and Top 15 Cities, Per Popular iPad App

The turn-the-page Web catalog—tested widely in the 2000s as an alternative to e-commerce sites—once looked like an emerging shopping platform led by now-defunct tech providers such as RichFX. But the concept died on the proverbial vine. With the massive proliferation of tablets, however, the... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2013-12-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Best Brand Content of 2013

The “brands are publishers now” line has become so ubiquitous in digital media that it risks becoming a cliché. While it is often true that companies are increasingly creating their own content, not all that’s published is created equal. Here’s to the brands that took the time and money to... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2013-12-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The "Netflix For Books" Business Model, And How It'll Change The Way You Read

Mark Coker of Smashwords, which recently inked a major content deal with Scribd, weighs in on how the all-you-can-read model changes the way we read, how authors make creative choices, and how everyone gets paid.Is a "Netflix for ebooks" nearing viability? Yesterday, Smashwords, the largest... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2013-12-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Personalised audio for SourceBooks' Put Me in the Story app

Sourcebooks' Put Me in the Story personalised-book series has launched a new 'universal... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2013-12-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Is this Wilmington startup the 'Netflix' of e-Books?

Armed with a new name, five employees and $5.3 million in financing, Wilmington-based e-Book subscription service Entitle is open for business this week. Founder Bryan Batten, who left a career in pharma sales to jump off the startup ledge, calls the service “a hybrid of Netflix and a book... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal

[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2013-12-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Exprima Talks: Peter Meyers, Content Innovation at Citia

In this debut of the Exprima Interview series, Corey Pressman talks with Peter Meyers of Citia about the future of ebooks and how digital storytelling might evolve. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Stephen Hawking's first official app teaches the basics of the universe

Stephen Hawking has gone to great lengths to promote science through books and videos, but he has been conspicuously absent in the software world -- until now, that is. The astrophysicist has just teamed up with Random House on Snapshots of the ... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2013-12-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Riggio Sells 2 Million B&N Shares

Barnes & Noble chairman Len Riggio sold 2 million of his shares in the bookstore chain on Tuesday for $13.81 a share. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-12-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Apple to give away songs, ebooks, apps during '12 Days of Gifts'

Apple will be giving away digital gifts every day for 12 days after Christmas to users of an app released Tuesday.     Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-12-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bezos in contention for TIME accolade

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has been named as one of 10 contenders for TIME magazine’s Person... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2013-12-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A Better Kind of Algorithm

When you’re shopping for gifts, try getting a recommendation from an actual human expert at your local bookstore, suggests Ross Ufberg of New Vessel Press. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Indies First: Authors share their experiences working as booksellers

The Indies First movement garnered more than 1,000 authors working at bookstores across the US and in Canada for Small Business Saturday, including James Patterson and Garth Stein. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-12-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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