Submitted by Rolf F. Katzenberger on Thu, 2007-10-11 07:47.
You're right wrt coverage of topics. A year ago, I would never imagine that I'd unsubscribe from 43Folders, but I've done so recently. Same with Lifehacker (which is kind of an aggregator, once working in a niche that has now rather become a cave).
Despite that, I think that choosing wisely which niches to monitor is indispensable. At least for me. I'm no longer capable of tracking Slashdot, Digg or Lifehacker (nor am I willing to). I've got a life to live. And they're generic, but no less an echo chamber than the niche-specific aggregators. In fact, a handful of people pre-determine what you're going to read on Digg. Funny enough, even Digg is getting accused of being too niche-y! (see this story on TechCrunch: http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/02/are-editors-needed-to-sort-through-…).
So IMHO it's a tradeoff between direct and indirect input, in any case. If you can't do what Scoble does, accept that you're going to miss some trends until they hit big. But also some fads - what a relief! ;-)
Bigger echo chamber
You're right wrt coverage of topics. A year ago, I would never imagine that I'd unsubscribe from 43Folders, but I've done so recently. Same with Lifehacker (which is kind of an aggregator, once working in a niche that has now rather become a cave).
Despite that, I think that choosing wisely which niches to monitor is indispensable. At least for me. I'm no longer capable of tracking Slashdot, Digg or Lifehacker (nor am I willing to). I've got a life to live. And they're generic, but no less an echo chamber than the niche-specific aggregators. In fact, a handful of people pre-determine what you're going to read on Digg. Funny enough, even Digg is getting accused of being too niche-y! (see this story on TechCrunch: http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/02/are-editors-needed-to-sort-through-…).
So IMHO it's a tradeoff between direct and indirect input, in any case. If you can't do what Scoble does, accept that you're going to miss some trends until they hit big. But also some fads - what a relief! ;-)