Check out Topix, another new news aggregator (in Beta), this one from a handful of DMOZ and Netscape refugees. What makes Topix special? From an email sent to me by Rich Skrenta, one of the founders:
Our project is a news aggregator that reads all the news, everywhere, and sorts it into thousands of categories depending on what the stories are about. One kind of sorting we do is geographical, so we produce an online news rollup for each of 30,000 towns and cities across the US. We also track every mention of a celebrity, sports team, health condition, country, music group, public companies, and some other stuff…
The geographic sort makes Topix a local news player, which is potentially a major source of revenue once local search gains full traction. Take note, media investors.
For another Topix grok, here’s what Tara of Research Buzz had to say…
Check out this example he sent to me, a rollup of news associated with the Search Engine Industry….
Now, why doesn’t Topix support RSS? I asked, update when I hear.
We plan to add RSS support. It shouldn’t be too difficult for us, we’ve just been swamped with the launch. Stay tuned, we actually want the RSS too…