I'm Just Sharing

Alltop bills itself as “an “online magazine rack” of popular topics. I tend to think of it more as a site of all topics of any kind in the world, including current news. In essence, it’s the news and magazine version of Google, where you can find pretty much anything, and they’re always adding more. It was created by Guy Kawasaki, whose book Reality Check, I recently reviewed.

Initially, the site gives you some topic choices, a list of the alphabet that you can click on and search, and a regular search window where you can put in something specific. I decided to pick college football, since I haven’t paid any attention thus far today (happens when your local college football team stinks), just to see what it was all about. Up pops up numerous lists of 5 stories each. Some were listed by news source, such as CBS. Some were listed by conference. There were 33 different listings on the page, which is phenomenal. I did notice, however, that, since every list has to keep in format, there were a few stories that weren’t related to college football in those lists that were conference related. Most specifically, the Big East list only had two football related stories, with the other 3 stories related to Big East basketball; hey, I’m ready for the season change.

So, it’s not perfect, but it’s pretty good and quite informative. However, there’s something else you can do if you can find your niche. You can get your blog listed if it fits one of the categories that Alltop has created, and I’m assuming if there’s enough interest in a topic that you can get listed also. I was able to get my business blog listed under the category of leadership blogs, which makes me ecstatic because I now feel like I belong with the big boys.

One of the things Alltop would be good for is if your website needs static content to help it stay fresh. To whit, there’s this page of goodies (hey, that’s what it’s called) where you can find things to put on different sites, and information on how you can add a widget to your site that will show whatever topic and category that you might be interested in. It reminds me a lot of Topix, which I’ve used for a couple of years on one of my sites, a news aggregator that also puts static content on websites if requested.

Alltop is pretty neat, especially if you’re an information junkie. It can also be overwhelming, especially if you have things to do, so use in moderation. I haven’t decided yet if I’ll be adding anything to this blog or my business blog just yet, but if I do, you’ll know soon enough.