The web is buzzing today about Guy Kawasaki’s launch of AllTop.com. The site serves as an aggregator of stories across numerous topics and is essentially a magazine rack for the web. From Twitter to blogs, the digerati are discussing merits and drawbacks of both the site and Kawasaki himself. Check out posts from Doc Searls at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, TechCrunch and Jeremiah Owyang.
I guess I’m missing something, because part of the beauty of the web is that if you don’t like it, you don’t have to use it. The Internet allows us to self-select sites, content, people of interest based on whatever criteria are individually relevant. If you are a hipster and have your own RSS feeds all set up, feel free to ignore the AllTop site. Or, perhaps it may still be useful, giving you an easy way to scan top stories in topics of occasional interest. For the techies who say the site is entry level and not useful to those of us who live online, I say, “Duh!” It isn’t meant for us. If I had a dollar for every client who asked me what RSS is, I’d be rich by now. I sent this to my brother who is not very savvy when it comes to digital and he said, “Cool. I’ll bookmark this.” It will probably be a valuable resource for him and will enhance his online experience.
Personally, I think the site is just fine. I like the simplicity of the layout, fully acknowledging the nod to PopURLs. I like being able to scroll numerous feeds, many of which I don’t subscribe to as a new source of content. I spent a bit of time stuck in an airport this weekend and AllTop definitely helped pass the time. I really like the Twitter channel as I don’t have time to subscribe to everyone I’d like, (although I have to confess to being disappointed in not getting a nod on the acknowledgments page for initially recommending the idea to Guy) and think that he deserves a ton of credit for building this site quick and marketing it well.
Besides, I think there are a lot of other things that we could spend our time griping about. How about Internet pollution to start?
