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Metrofeed LA Lays RSS Pipe to ... What? *
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3454 Reads
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 UPDATE BELOW
It's surprising that it took so long for someone to build this - a low-maintenance, zero-input site based on RSS feeds from L.A.'s more prominent newsblogs. No content, no editing, no live production - build it, set it, forget it.
But then they built eight others just like it (New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, San Diego, Washington, Toronto and London) and called it MetroFeed, and all of a sudden blogging.la's ambitious "Metroblogging" global business model looks like the latest ripoff victim in the ongoing media scramble for The Next Big Thing.
The RSS roster at Metrofeed L.A. is a lineup of the usual suspects, with a couple of personal-seeming choices thrown in:
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bloggingla, Cinemocracy, Defamer, FunkyJennGazette, LAObserved, LABlogs, LA.Comfidential, LAist and LAVoice.
Other than the extra tools and features bolted to the framework - a Google search window, links to traffic at SigAlert.com, weather, Amoeba's top 10, Netflix's new videos list, feeds from Craigslist and a handful of non-geographic feeds such as Gizmodo and boingboing - there are only the barest hints as to what the owners want to do with the site.
The About page has a form for suggesting feeds in the target cities, and a small GoogleAds block. I've emailed a few questions to the owners - I'll report back here if they reply.
(Spotted at LABlogs, where blogging.la's own Sean has posted the rather thin WhoIs info; It appears to point to San Francisco as Metrofeed's point of origin. But a Metrofeed type named "Eugene" is pretty cryptic on their mission: 1. Hi we’re still in beta, testing the site… I guess you picked it up from your referral log? We’re not associated with any weblog service or company… we’ve been in the RSS and syndication business for a while and are creating these pages as a way to provide a service and also test some of our technology. Thanks!) UPDATE:
One of Metrofeed's two partners, Alex Blasedale, explains that Metrofeed hopes to capitalize - quite literally - on the growth in acceptance of RSS: Hi Mack,
The project is a new project for my partner Eugene and I. Basically we
have been working with feeds and syndication for a while in our
previous jobs, which I won't mention other then to say that he's a
systems engineer and I've been involved in web publishing since 1998.
We have both been involved with high-profile websites and companies,
but are under the radar personally and prefer to maintain that, if you
don't mind.
Our real goal is the larger propagation of RSS, specifically with
regard to cities and metropolitan areas. Our plan with the websites is
to build up a nice local audience who will then use our services to
transform their content into RSS feeds. We see a future where every
city agency and every local business has an RSS feed which will keep
people informed about what's happening in their city, either through a
feed site like ours, or through personal newsreaders, or through other
content sites such as LAVoice.
We have 10 more cities ready to go, but concentrated to start with on
the cities that have a larger local blogging scene and which are more
in tune to the internet as a place for city-based information.
Eventually we will add as many cities as possible.
We don't plan to accept much advertising, the main advertisement is
our company and our services, such as creating custom feed portals for
businesses and agencies, and/or syndicating the content of city
agencies and businesses. We have developed an excellent software
product which can allow anyone with a web browser to quickly and
easily create a page like ours, as well as create their own feeds
rapidly through a variety of methods.
Anyway, we hope the pages are a useful way to read local news, gossip,
etc. and welcome any and all comments and criticism, as well as
suggested feeds. We're still beta-testing all of the features, the
complete site should roll out in November.
Best,
Alex Blasedale
Metrofeed.com
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| Posted by: mack_reed on Sunday, October 24, 2004 - 10:24 PM
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