Conversation Agent: MyAlltop.com Personal Content Filter

I read what my network shares. The variety you see in what I share is due to the fact that I have a very large - and diverse - network.

When MyAlltop.com was first rolled out, I created an account and started adding blogs, then put it on the back burner. I went back last night and started adding more blogs that I read. With new media capabilities, I can now share the blogs I read in many ways:

tweeting the posts that make me think and teach me something - I like the fact that many retweet what they feel is valuable for their network. This gives me an idea of the kinds of content people are receptive to. One way I track those clicks is through HootSuite.

sharing posts with comments and liking posts others share on Friendfeed -this is the place here I also share many photographs by favoring them on Flickr. Then I can add a comment, a quote, a description, and engage in a threaded conversation if anyone is interested. The "like" button is very powerful - a very fast way to indicate you enjoyed a post, link, an image, etc. Did I mention that Friendfeed is very search-friendly?

enabling the share function on GoogleReader- I will let Louis Gray do the heavy lifting on this one. The fact that Google enabled comments and "likes" on its reader says a lot about the company's intention to compete with Facebook/Friendfeed.

showing you the blogs I read by personalizing MyAlltop.com - to set up yours go to the site and create an account. Then go through the many topics catalogued at Alltop.com and click on the "+" sign for each feed to import it into your account. It's that easy. I do wonder if Guy is planning to offer a widget for MyAlltop, that would be grand.

I really love MyAlltop for what it is. But something which distinguishes a great web application from a good one is its adaptability - how it suggests entirely new ways to be used. In the case of MyAlltop, I've been thinking about ways to use it for cause marketing and to support some of my friends' outside projects.

The screen shot I used for this post is slighly personalized to show my support for the relaunch of MoreMininal.com by Chris Baskind. I couldn't resist and mocked up a customized banner at the top as well. Bottom line, today your content creators include the content they share in their creative process.

Content filtering also appeals to the critics, the collectors, the joiners, and the spectators as defined in the Forrester Social Technographics Ladder. That's why the sharing and liking function in applications is so important. So why limit the application to content? Google has been doing well with contextual ads through search.

What about user-driven ad choices?

Joe Jaffe tells us that JetBlue just reached 1MM followers on Twitter, the first brand to do that. There's been talk of adding ads on Twitter. What about letting users choose among an available inventory by showing the ads that match the content and that of their favorite users?

Adam Singer tells us how Shutterstock got social by reaching out to influential bloggers and offering a test drive of their images. How about integrating more creative ways of helping the advertising team extend the work of the public relations group? Kind of what Unilever did with Dove, just on a different budget.

I really like the idea of sharing an ad that supports a favorite charity - maybe that's a way to donate to the nonprofit by creating a contest with user generated ads, then letting the users pick the winner and add it to their sites, like I did with the mock up here. MoreMinimal.com is not a charity, I used it as an example to help Chris get the word out.

Would this create a new marketplace for ad inventory? More likely it would create a whole new sensibility around useful ads. These are some of the ideas I had. Could you see this working on media sites? What opportunities do you see?

Bonus reading - interesting discussion on paid links to build SEO.

[I mocked up all the banners you see in the image]