Alltop- Encouraging the Mainstream

April 20, 2008 · Comments

alltop logo I’ve been thinking about Alltop. It’s a site built by Guy Kawasaki to help people find popular blogs on various topics. My blog and Twitter account show up in a few of these categories (thanks, Guy!), but what I’m interested in talking about are the topics that might appeal to the mainstream, and why I think Alltop deserves a little love.

What Is It

Alltop is an Internet magazine rack, fed by blogs. It is a site that aggregates summary content from multiple blogs into categories of interest. The source blogs feed information into Alltop by way of their RSS feed, but all of this plumbing is hidden away under the covers so that Alltop users don’t have to think about it.

Who Uses It

Alltop isn’t for you or me. It’s for friends and family and coworkers who aren’t yet surfing at the speed of light with Google Reader, or adding meta commentary via FriendFeed. It’s for our neighbor who still logs into AOL, or people who want to read a sampling of information without a lot of customization.

Why Should You Care

First, check out the various categories at Alltop. Is your blog a great representative of one of the categories? You might contact Guy and ask to be listed in that category. Second, this is another way to get people comfortable with using blogs as sources of information. Remember, you and I are IN this world. We forget that others still question the credibility of blogs.

What Comes Next

One of two things might come next to Alltop: advertising, or acquisition. If I’m Guy, I’m hoping more for B than A, but hey, if it pays for summer gas money, great. For the rest of us, it’s something to watch, as ANY opportunity to get the mainstream into our world is a good thing. YouTube and Hulu aren’t immediately the best thing for independent video producers, but the more people get used to watching content online, the more likely they are not to discriminate and try out new, independent products. Alltop works like that, in my estimation.

What’s Your Take

Have you looked at the various categories served in Alltop? Have you seen the representative blogs? What do you think?

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  • great post! Alltop is a recent discovery for me as a newbie blogger. I found this article so helpful. thanks!
  • I'm checking Alltop out right now. This could be great way for me to share information with people instead of sharing feeds through my Google Reader.
  • cat
    "You might contact Guy and ask to be listed in that category."

    Thanks for the suggestion Chris. I did and he did.

    As for using Alltop myself for main feeds, I doubt it. I'll check in every once in awhile because it's useful to see what they believe are the top for each category, but other than that, I need a personalised list (and I'm still searching for the 'perfect' reader).

    My mother (70) and mother-in-law (89) on the other hand, will most likely love it.

    I set both up with Macs years ago, but due to their ages (the Internet is still 'magic'), they've been passed up by the speed of technology.

    Alltop should be an easy way to keep them up on subjects of interest.
  • Correct Me If I'm Wrong
    When I last visited the site, it struck me as rather limited in scope of sources provided. Additionally, I felt the "news" sources had a decided liberal bias. I will check it again to be certain that I am correct but that's what I recollect until then.
  • Thanks Chris. I would not have found Alltop without you.

    It's a great site. My only complaint? It has kind of a stupid name.
  • AllTop is great. Period. Anytime a co-worker approaches me asking for a sampling of blogs on or related to a specific category of interest, AllTop is a great first resource/jumping off point for the discovery of that verticals social media leaders.

    Aside for the aggregate value, it's VERY well designed, intuitive and at times addictive. Overall, great site.
  • Love how Alltop functions. I use Bloglines and other feed readers, but that doesn't stop me from checking Alltop as it's a big collection of my favorite sites and I prefer the simple, minimalist layout.
  • I'm another fan of Alltop, and I'm very appreciative of Guy including 2 of my sites. As you said Chris, I've used the site to help get friends and family members tapped into blogs within their areas of interest. They'll never use a feedreader, but they are using Alltop.

    I've been mining the categories for my own purposes too. In particular, I think it is an excellent place to do headline research. I don't want to subscribe to hundreds of blogs, but I like to skim hundreds of headlines looking for ones that jump out at me. I've discovered a few new blogs this way, and I've used this approach to sharing excellent content on social media.

    I'm excited to hear that Alltop is working with Lijit for a search function. I use Lijit on one of my sites, and I love it!

    I give Alltop an A+!
  • reptlnerd
    good stuff, great as a news rss aggregator. compare and contrast news from multiple sources...my favorite so far is "world news"
  • I'm a huge fan of Alltop, because it's a bit like curated RSS feeds for people that don't understand RSS. I've already turned quite a few people on to Alltop, and am hoping it acts like a gateway drug to more interaction on the web: http://is.gd/1VO
  • First time I saw Alltop, I knew it was going to be an interesting site. Aggregating the best sites for categories, what can be better for a person looking for food commentary. I showed food.alltop.com to one of my food aficionado friends (one who rarely uses the internet except for email and chat), and she's using it as her homepage now.

    The market is obviously out there and there is so much potential to reach a larger audience. Now if they made local alltops like seattle.alltop.com, now that would be interesting.
  • Meg
    Plain and simple -- this is something my Mom would get. And not just because I squeezed in there a couple times. :)

    I think as it grows and evolves, it will move past some of the concerns people have about it, or they'll go on using what works for them.
  • Chris, thanks for your emphasis on Alltop's utility for the 98% of the world that doesn't know and doesn't much care how to find an RSS feed or sign up for one.

    When I talk about social media/Web 2.0 with folks like that, they know very little about any of it besides blogs, and they often ask how to "find the good stuff" quickly. They do not want a tutorial on Bloglines vs Google Reader.

    I used to send them to Technorati, but now I send them to Google Blog Search and Alltop. With two travel blogs on Alltop, I'm biased towards the site, but I do like its ease of use and catholic approach to selecting blogs across topic areas.
  • Angel
    I'm someone who uses a feed reader on my desktop, iPod Touch, and Blackberry....I subscribe to hundreds of feeds and still have room for Alltop in my daily reading. There are often times where I don't feel like going through all my feeds and just want a quick synopsis of what's going on and Alltop is perfect for that.
  • A Dissenting Opinion
    I'm not posting my name here because of the same reason many people likely haven't commented--they don't want to offend the powers that be and lose their opportunity to get on AllTop.

    I'm a fan of the concept of AllTop and think it's an effective means of getting information out.

    However, there are questions that need to be asked:

    * What happens when a very popular site that seems impartial in its nature has an informal and highly subjective publishing process?
    * What policing is there that the best content will be on the site (whatever that is)?
    * And, of course, what's it like to be one of the sites that feels they should be there but isn't selected? Something about AllTop feels even more biased than not getting on other sites that are more community driven. It can really hurt.
  • Just want to quickly share one learning from a small batch of user interviews we did last summer. The interviews were for a small business (think mom 'n pop) management portal, and one component of the portal was an Alltop-like page - though nowhere near as elegant.

    The short of it - people generally "got it," but they were all looking for news content which related to them. The challenge we saw was the audience recognizing the sources' credibility (e.g., NYT, inc.com, etc.), but that the content provided didn't match up with their needs. The flip side was also true - the headlines of the "unknown" content providers aligned with their content wants, but the credibility issue wasn't eliminated.
  • I have two health blogs in Alltop, my own site, Iowa Avenue, plus a site highlightening the Healthy Lifestyle Bloggers. I knew what Alltop was before my sites were listed, but since being listed, I go there more frequently, and use is as a research reference for my own blogs.

    Plus, when I want to find out more information about a different topic, like social networking, I go to Alltop to discover new blogs, or older ones I haven't visited in a while.................:)
  • I love alltop too. I mean, Google Reader is my feedbag but there's something nicer about the way alltop lays things out. Quick glimpses of posts or tweets all on one page. Perfect for today's microwave society and information age riddled with attention deficet disorder. Bada bing, bada boom! Info in yo face.

    I also love how open and receptive Guy is about new ideas and suggestions for new categories. For example, he created the virtual.alltop.com category rather quickly after I suggested such a topic. He launched his wiki and off we all went to submit the best feeds. The same for tv.alltop.com right now. It's impressive and exciting to know we can all be a part of this. Guy understands the power of community and making us all feel a part of the same family.

    Pai
    p.s. Being in the twitterati (twitter.alltop.com) really has nothing to do with how I feel about alltop because I loved it before I received the honor. But it sure doesn't hurt how I feel about it or Guy. :)
  • Another good thing about Alltop is that you get the full benefit of it without ever having to sign in. That makes it quick to use and lowers the adoption rate.
  • Guy fixes several problems with Alltop. First, I am always to busy to stay organized with my RSS feeds and Alltop alays gives me a base to go back to and stay on top of what's going on. Second, it gives people that don't 'get' RSS or can't be bothered with RSS readers the advantage of RSS without hving to deal with it. Third, if Alltop wants to get to the top and stay there they need to do a good job on selecting the top blogs. That means if Alltop is successful they'll do the job for me of finding the good ones and weeding out the crap. That gives me more time to go after and enjoy the exotic things that are not as mainstream.
  • Wow! This is wonderful! I'd never heard of Alltop before, but I love it. Thanks!
  • the genius portal for an accelerated crash course in online marketing and figuring out where very specific eyeballs are surfing
  • I think this comment isnt positive enough about alltop: re: Comment by Guy Kawasaki on April 20, 2008 @ 5:38 pm.

    I run a company and have no time. I like to be knowledgeable about things beyond The Economist or the New Yorker or one specific art magazine like Juxtapose or highsnobiety or om. I have stacks of magazines, online accounts for premium news, trade publications for metal finishing and licensing, sunday NYT, 3 weeks worth of old economists and dont read more than a book a month for fun these days (excluding XYZ for Dummies issues).

    Alltop can be something that connects people to more breadth of opinions more easilly rather than forcing all your feeds to be so hyper specialized. It's an age of leftists getting their news from leftists and right wingers from rush and "tony katz" and this is part of what polarizes our culture, at least online. if we can help people get out of their custom tailored RSS web2.0 newsfeeds it's a good thing for the world.

    ben
  • As an IT Consultant, instructor and technology trainer for little kids and senior citizens, I'm always looking for ways to explain things to these people in a simple fashion. Alltop will be a great tool for me to introduce seniors to blogs. It will open them up to a whole new way of getting the information they want to see. Looking forward to interacting with it more and more. Thanks!
  • I show Alltop to friends and people who are wanting to dig in a bit beyond AOL's homepage. They are excited to see how the layout is simple, not allowing for huge customizations which they like unlike us geeks who thrive on changing everything to suite ourselves. I like Alltop to find new feeds I don't already have in Google Reader.
  • Since my food blog is in Alltop, I can't really be impartial about it. :)
  • We continually show teachers Alltop for two reasons:

    1) As type of online magazine rack that students can use in research.

    2) The power of RSS feeds and Creative Commons licensing.

    It's been a great study in collaboration as well, as the community itself has had great input in who gets included into the Alltop sections

    As said above, Alltop is a great way to get lesser known voices into the mainstream. We show it off often.
  • Thanks for all the comments. One very good rule of thumb for our positioning is this: If you use TechCrunch or Digg, then Alltop is probably not for you.

    :-)

    Guy
  • When Guy gave me a sneak preview of the interface in January, it was still just meant to be a "popurls" for celebrity blogs. I was excited about the interface then and with the addition of many different categories, I'm even more excited about it now. It's an RSS reader without anyone needing to know what RSS is or how it works.

    When Alltop debuted I challenged my Twitter followers (might be time to do this again) to show an offline friend one of the categories that friend is most into. Probably overdue to do that again.

    Not because I adore Guy and want Alltop to succeed (both are true) or because I'm on the Twitter Alltop (thanks!) but because I want more of the mainstream to benefit wildly from the kinds of breakthroughs social media makes possible.

    Great post Chris!
  • Alltop is pretty fascinating, partly because no-one thought of it sooner. Or maybe they just needed Guy's cred to do it.

    Personally i'm very keen on it. It's the gateway for newcomers to enter the blogosphere and find the top blogs quickly. Then they can work their way down and find their own niche. Or just read.
  • Ed,

    Within a few weeks, there will be a search function. Lijit is helping us out.

    Thanks!

    Guy
  • It seems like an interesting site, though I wish there was a search function. Do you have any idea how much love the site's been getting?
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