NewsPond is a news aggregator that’s somewhere between TechMeme and Digg (okay, someone already said this, but I guess it’s a good description) - it aggregates news from different sources on the web using an automated AI algorithm while allowing registered users to comment on stories which then determines the stories “Buoyancy Rating” (kinda like thumbs up on Digg). The higher this buoyancy rating, the higher the story is in the “most popular mode”.

Registered users are given the option to save a story in their personal archive, which is useful for following a developing topic, and can comment on stories as well. The basic registration (naturally free) asks the user to choose the basic info (username, password), but the profile is further customizable by adding additional info such as location, homepage URL, age, sex and bio. I don’t see why this exists as an option now, since there is no visible purpose for this (sharing stuff with other members, searching other members, grouping …), so I am guessing the service will extend member interaction in the future, so this additional info will be useful then.

The interface looks nice (a very web 2.0 - ish interface), with effects that are moderately expensive as far as processing is concerned, but slower machines can by-pass any rendering problems by turning off “some” of the advanced interface features (requires registration). One thing that bothered me was the lack of feeds (or at least I didn’t find them). There are five categories - most recent, most popular now, biggest today, 1w, 1m - that could all have their own feed and make it easier to see headlines in a feed reader. I am hoping they will introduce this in the future. The graphics on the site are very impressive though, and so is the whole look and feel of the site. If NewsPond added video news as well, that would really make them stand out. Check them out!

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