Blockfeed iPhone App primary way of displaying information, now available on Android.
Blockfeed, This New York city-based startup is aggregating local news sources, from small blogs to established newspapers, geolocating relevant news stories to a hyper local location — such as a particular street or block — and then serving those stories to readers based on where they happen to be at the time they open the mobile app.
Blockfeed users are redirected to the actual news source if they tap to read the story, with the app just acting as a local news source aggregation and distribution platform. In theory — and if it gains significant traction — the platform could help to level the playing field for local bloggers competing for attention with established media outlets by surfacing their content alongside more mainstream media new stories.
“The front page, which is our primary way of displaying information to the user, uses distance as the major relevancy factor. But it also uses social activity as part of how we prioritize things,” explains co-founder and CEO Phil Perkins.
“So, for example, if an article is getting shared a lot on social media it’s relevancy goes up. But one thing that’s cool that we do is we actually normalize that kind of velocity against the publication itself — so we enable even small blogs to theoretically compete against your major publications, like your New York Daily News or your New York Times.”
Currently the app is live in New York City only, after soft launching on iOS at the start of last month. Thus far it’s gained around 900 active users without any marketing. It’s launching on Android today, and stepping up the noise.
Blockfeed, This New York city-based startup is aggregating local news sources, from small blogs to established newspapers, geolocating relevant news stories to a hyper local location — such as a particular street or block — and then serving those stories to readers based on where they happen to be at the time they open the mobile app.
Blockfeed users are redirected to the actual news source if they tap to read the story, with the app just acting as a local news source aggregation and distribution platform. In theory — and if it gains significant traction — the platform could help to level the playing field for local bloggers competing for attention with established media outlets by surfacing their content alongside more mainstream media new stories.
“The front page, which is our primary way of displaying information to the user, uses distance as the major relevancy factor. But it also uses social activity as part of how we prioritize things,” explains co-founder and CEO Phil Perkins.
“So, for example, if an article is getting shared a lot on social media it’s relevancy goes up. But one thing that’s cool that we do is we actually normalize that kind of velocity against the publication itself — so we enable even small blogs to theoretically compete against your major publications, like your New York Daily News or your New York Times.”
Currently the app is live in New York City only, after soft launching on iOS at the start of last month. Thus far it’s gained around 900 active users without any marketing. It’s launching on Android today, and stepping up the noise.
