Techmeme is a
technology
Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...
news aggregator
In computing, a news aggregator, also termed a feed aggregator, feed reader, news reader, RSS reader or simply an aggregator, is client software or a web application that aggregates syndicated web content such as online newspapers, blogs, podc ...
. The website has been described as "a one-page, aggregated, filtered, archiveable summary in near real-time of what is new and generating conversation".
Overview
Gabe Rivera
Gabriel Rivera (April 7, 1961 – July 16, 2018), nicknamed "Señor Sack", was an American football nose tackle in the National Football League (NFL). Rivera played college football for Texas Tech where he earned All-American honors in 1982. ...
was a compiler software engineer at
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...
before launching tech.memeorandum on September 12, 2005. After working on tech.memeorandum for a year, it was renamed to Techmeme. The website is funded entirely by Rivera, and has no investors.
Website
Techmeme uses an
algorithm
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specificat ...
to order stories by importance, which depends on several factors that include the number of links to the story's web page and how old the story is. "Anti-gaming" efforts have been made to lower the effect that a high number of links can have on a story if the links were created in a short period of time, or by a small number of people. The website has a Techmeme Sponsors Program which accepts payment in exchange for a dedicated section for sponsors.
A
search engine
A search engine is a software system designed to carry out web searches. They search the World Wide Web in a systematic way for particular information specified in a textual web search query. The search results are generally presented in a ...
was added to the website on May 20, 2008, which searches all archived stories that have appeared on the website as a full headline. Two weeks later, a "prospective search feature" was added to Techmeme, which allows users to subscribe to future search results and receive notifications when a headline matches their search pattern.
The team and technology behind Techmeme also powers media news aggregator Mediagazer, political aggregation site Memeorandum, baseball aggregation site Ballbug, and celebrity gossip aggregator WeSmirch.
Technology
Techmeme works by
scraping news websites and
blog
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...
s, and then compiles a list of links to the most popular technology-related news of the day, which is continuously updated. The stories selected are chosen primarily by an automated process. The service is fed a list of websites, and then it finds other websites that are similar to these to find similar news stories and to keep the focus on technology news. Once the website finds sources that provide a good source of technology news, they are added to Techmeme's database so that it can track them for future updates. In December 2008, the original automated process was supplemented by two human editors—Megan McCarthy and Omer Horvitz—who manage the mix of headlines. Three additional editors were added in November 2009, Rich DeMuro, Lidija Davis and Mahendra Palsule.
Rivera has suggested that website owners get linked to by other
web pages when possible because it increases the chances that Techmeme will find their website.
References
Further reading
"Techmeme Offers Tech News at Internet Speed" ''The New York Times''. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
Meet The Man Whose Site Mark Zuckerberg Reads Every Day Warzel, Charlie. ''
BuzzFeed
BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Ken ...
''. Retrieved March 21, 2017.
"With Briefing, The Information muscles in on news aggregators like Techmeme" ''poynter'' Retrieved October 4, 2017
External links
*{{official website, http://www.techmeme.com
News aggregators
American technology news websites
Internet memes
Internet properties established in 2005