Is competing with Google News a really stupid idea?
I'm working on a news aggregation service with a twist. It's called "according to local sources...", and the basic idea is that local news media are often quicker and more knowledgeable than global news agencies when reporting on major international breaking news. So, basically this service looks for big stories around the world, and then automatically finds local reports (both on twitter and on local news websites).
I got some feedback here at Indiehackers a time back, and I've tweaked the service accordingly.
Do you think this kind of service might be able to compete with more traditional news aggregation sites?
Please head over and have a look, and tell me what you think: https://according.to.localsourc.es
#landing-page-feedback
It's not a bad idea, if you're running it as a side-project and can make do without any serious income.
When/If Google shutters 'News' like it has done a lot of other projects, and if you're already established as a decent alternative by then, you may be able to capture the outflow and make it big.
Thanks! And it's definitely a side project (as much a technology demonstrator as anything else).
But with that said, it's always more fun if people actually use your service.
No, it's not
I usually face an issue when I cannot find info about events or news in some particular areas. This news is interesting for a small group of people, so usually, it's just a post or comment on facebook/twitter/telegram. Google works well for global events and sucks for such cases
If you built good news aggregator for one particular area, create a community around it so then you'll probably find a recipe how to do it on a global level for different areas.
Thanks for the feedback!
The scope that you describe isn't exactly what I'm aiming at currently but could definitely be something for the future.
I think there's a big market for alternative news. People don't trust the media and are becoming more and more skeptical of Google (they did drop their Don't be evil motto after all, and make weapons, and are OK with censoring China.)
Deplatforming is a growing concern and so an alternative to Google News makes perfect sense.
Some hopefully constructive feedback:
Thanks for taking some time to give me feedback!
I think I might have failed to describe the concept (which obviously is a problem in itself): The news agency that is reporting the breaking story is a globally trusted news outlet (AFP, AP, BBC etc).
Once the algorithm has identified a breaking story it identifies the related location of the story (indicated by the tags below the headline). After that the local media outlets are retrieved from a database of approx 14000 geo-coded sources (local newspapers, Twitter-accounts, TV-stations etc)
In order to see those local reports you need to select the story by clicking on it. Will definitely add some sort of button or link to clarify this.
Local sources, how are you identifying local sources for visitors? Do you mean country based news list?
Yes, basically there is a database of something like 14000 geo-coded media sources (both websites and Twitter-accounts). Whenever a breaking story is published by one of several news agencies (AP, AFP, Al Jazeera, BBC etc )the algorithm will start looking for related reporting from the local media outlets.
Sounds cool! This doesn't sound like competition, since the approach is pretty different.
Thanks, glad you liked it!
Yes it's stupid!
Most trash websites do the same thing, they copy news from other sources including fake news websites.
Google will ignore you because its duplicated content.
People will ignore you, because the news are not original.
There are billions of content aggregators, and most of them are ignored or dead, the only ones alive are the ones with different features and options.
And there is many reasons more.
Thanks for your sincere feedback!
Could you please refer me to a similar news aggregation website (with non-english language local reporting of breaking news)?
I would love to get some inspiration.