Digg + MacUpdate = IUseThis?
I love Digg.com, and believe that the idea behind it (users coming up with and filtering out good content) is really cool. So I was pretty excited to hear from Arne Fismen yesterday about a new Mac software tracking site he and his buddy Marcus have been working on over the past year.
The result is "iusethis.com", a website where Mac users can keep track of the latest software updates with a new (and pleasantly familiar) twist: iusethis also allows its users to claim "I use this" status on each app with a Digg-like clickable counter, and as a result, you can easily view the day's updates with the convenient filter of popularity.
Perhaps most promising? Arne and Marcus are currently implementing a powerful recommendation system based on these statistics. Eventually, iusethis will be able to very accurately recommend software by comparing your app collection with those of others. Sounds really cool, and I wish the best of luck to these two guys. If you find this interesting, be sure to check out the public beta, though to note, Arne has specifically asked you guys to resist submitting this to Digg for now.
Comments
Up until this point, there have been 12 responses to “Digg + MacUpdate = IUseThis?”:
Looks neat, thanks!
What a wicked idea. Thanks for the heads up Phill.
Pretty neat, one of the more useable ideas spun off from digg.
This is a really cool, hopefully I'll discover a few cool new apps. But I think the one problem that could happen with the site is that only the massively popular apps like Adium, Transmit, NetNewsWire ect. will stand out pretty killing any opportunity for newer undiscovered apps.
Great idea. Thanks for the link
@Chris
After using the site a little bit, i feel the same way about the concept of the site "burying" potentially great, new, undiscovered apps just because of the 'everyone else is using it' factor. 20 minutes on the site, and i dont really know that i'll be back. not as compelling as digg. maybe a larger userbase would make it more interesting.
@Chris
We are trying to fight this by making a good recommendation system. Additionally we have rss-feeds for whenever friends of you adopt new apps. This (if people use it) will make it a bit easier for new great apps.
Love the site. It's a pretty cool idea and once the amount of users increase, it should turn out to be a great place to find new apps.
Wow... added at my feed RSS... and now see my Growl notification go crazy! 
Wow! This makes MacUpdate and Versiontracker really look "Web 1.0". Nice and clean interface, smooth AJAX effects - and the growth of contents looks promising...
[...] Arne and Marcus are the guys behind the new software tracking site, iusethis, first publicly unveiled in an earlier feature on this blog and now off to a running start thanks to some additional secondary publicity by TUAW and Digg coverage. With its unique “I use this” feature, iusethis has the opportunity to offer a significant challenge to MacUpdate, VersionTracker, and other established competitors in a crowded market. In this interview, we talk about how it’s been going in the past week, what they plan for the site’s future, and what makes iusethis different from its rivals, when differentiation will be key to its success. [...]
Derek Punsalan
July 09th, 2006 at 2:46pmThanks for the heads up on thsi site. It looks very promising and a sure fix for OSX users who often find themselves getting that itch to find something new to play with.