Among the top stories on their home page: World’s First Trash-Powered Electric Garbage Truck, The Herbs Which Can Help You Improve Your Sexual Health (catnip!), Obama likely to tap Locke for commerce, sources say, The Top 10 Awesome Things You Didn’t Know About Clint Eastwood (he’s a vegan!).
In addition to sharing articles, you can tag them, favorite them, vote them up or down, and comment on them. If you opt to integrate with Twitter, you can tweet your submissions. Personalize your startpage by adding categories that you’re interested in, form a private group and just share stories with them, follow a Mixxer (become their MixxFriend), or form a Mixx Community (public or private). Mixxers earn Karma points by participating (submitting, commenting, etc.). SuperMixxers have special privileges, and Mixxers can earn awards such as Top Submitter, Conversation Starter (submitted the story with the most comments), and Curmudgeon (voted the most stories down).
Digg it
Among the most popular news on their homepage: Duke Ellington becomes first African American on U.S. Coin, Five Ways to Give Up Facebook Without Offending Your Friends, Researchers develop ‘wireless’ activation of brain circuits, Auto Tune Mania-How Advanced Spy Tech Topped Music Charts.
Submit, comment on, Digg or Bury (stories and comments), and Favorite stories. Customize what stories you see by adding or removing topics. Add Diggers to your friends to follow their activities and share yours, or email stories to anyone. Shout (message) a fellow Digger. Play around with their visualization tools. Digg also interviews “notable leaders and luminaries”; you can suggest who they interview and submit questions to be asked.
Seed the Newsvine
Story highlighted on front page: Infant, 4 others shot near Mardi Gras parade route
Among the top seeds: Taxing pot could become a political toking point (teehee), RNC Chair Steele threatens retribution against GOP senators who voted for stimulus , New mirror doesnt (sic) show mirrored image and is not done with cameras (?)
“Seed the vine” with, tag, vote up, and comment on stories, as well as writing your own articles. A free account provides you with a column which you can use for writing articles, as well as seeding, recommending, and collecting friends; 90% of the ad revenue generated by your column goes to you. Join or create private or public groups, create a Friend List for private discussions, and chat with other members. Keep up with particular tags or authors by adding them to your Watchlist, and follow discussions with Conversation Tracker. Your overall level of contribution is reflected in your Vineacity.
Among the links on their home page: Want legal pot in California? Stop upvoting stories in reddit and give $10 to NORML, Actually, this is how far text to speech has come, Bowser gets the Princess after all…Mario drowns in a lake of fire!, The Anti-Bono: Please No More African Aid.
Submit, vote hot or cold, save, and comment on links. Reddit recommends links based on your voting. Share links by email and follow other Redditors by “friending” them. Earn karma by submitting links. Message other Redditors. You can earn such whimsical awards as bellwether (“best predictor of the day’s top links”), lurker (“didn’t do anything, just lurked like a champ”), and procrastinator (“slacked off the most from work today”). They also have an adorable logo.
Whew!
I didn’t notice much overlap between the stories on the sites, so I’m skeptical about how much they represent the most popular stories on the internet. I think Newsvine and Mixx have potential for education, though: create a group in Newsvine or a Community in Mixx (you can make them private if you want), share links, and hold discussions.
I’ve never used these sites before. I usually keep up with current events by reading the New York Times’ Most E-mailed articles, various blogs, and skimming Yahoo! and MSN’s headlines when I check my email. To complete this Thing, I shared a NYT article about genetics using Yahoo! Buzz because I already have a Yahoo! account. Yahoo! Buzz’s Top Buzz stories are determined by votes, comments, popularity of related search terms in Yahoo! Search, and email sharing in Buzz. Their home page had a higher density of actual news than the home pages of the other social news sites. I probably won’t be creating an account with these services or their kin any time soon; I’m satisfied with my current system.
