New York Times Wants to Be the Pandora of News - Adam Clark Estes

More ripples rolling out from my breaking the story on Times People toolbar being discontinued without notice. A bunch of more diligent reporters contacted Marc Frons (why didn’t I do that?):

via AtlanticWire

The New York Times is beginning to roll out an experimental new approach to personalized news that the Poynter Institute compares to Pandora’s approach to suggesting music based on what users say they like. The paper is trying to provide a more social news experience that includes not only personalization but also a reader reputation system and new approach to commenting. So far, most of the new additions have been happening behind the scenes—rethinking how to do recommendations and tweaking algorithms. When the toolbar for TimesPeople, a simple social network launched in 2008, disappeared this week, Poynter’s Jeff Sonderman suspected something biggest was in store and reached out to chief technology officer Marc Frons who explained some upcoming features.

Features planned include active personalization, a reputation system, and more, better comments.

Hmmm. Not clear if the service is going to be limited to just NY Times articles or not. Imagine a NY Times social network — designed around curating, annotating, and sharing news — but which could start with posts from any source?