Percolate: The Microblogging Platform Where Tumblr And Twitter Go To Hang Out | Fast Company
Percolate, currently in its "double secret alpha" version, is a blogging platform that provides curated content for you to write about. The service taps into your RSS and Twitter feeds, culls content based on your interests--the stuff that "percolates up"--and then offers you the ability to share your thoughts on the subject with friends. "We're trying to make it easy for anyone to create content," Brier says, "to take away from the frustration of staring at that blank box and trying to figure out what to say."
In many ways, Percolate aims to be equal parts Tumblr, Google Reader, and Twitter. Like Tumblr, user content is divided between your own feed--called your "Filter"--and your follower feeds--called your "Brew." But instead of having to post your own content, Percolate features a steady stream of interesting content, from you and your friends, for you to comment on.
Pay attention to this one.
I tend to go absolutely crazy waiting for the launch of new tools like Percolate that have such a great potential to change how we do work on a daily basis.
The Potential Impact of Percolate & Similar Tools?
- The old 'traditional' way of creating content ➔ Spend weeks making phone calls and writing letters to find sources.
- The 'early years of the internet' way of creating content ➔ Spend days sending emails to find sources.
- The 'blogging and online journalism' way of creating content ➔ Spend an afternoon or more finding sources.
- The 'social media and news/feed/rss reader' way of creating content ➔ Spend a morning on Google Reader or Netvibes sifting through a collection of hundreds (even thousands) subscribed news and blog feeds to find sources. Has quickly become impossible to manage so much information currently available online.
- The 'natural language processing & Semantic Web based' ways of creating content ➔ Spend 20 minutes sorting through a small, personalized list of highly relevant content suggestions.
Percolate certainly falls into this last category, as do other novel ideas launched in the past few years, such as InboxQ, Feedly, Cadmus, Refynr, or Scoot.it. We might also call these tools a Don't Make Me Think! strategy of content creation.
Not yet released, but you can visit the Percolate site now to sign up for one of the launch invites.
I hate waiting.
