Those who rely on neighbours and newspapers to keep up with what’s going on in the world don’t tend to have problems with information overload. Unless, perhaps, they forget to recycle.

High profile fans like Marshall Kirkpatrick and Read/WriteWeb have driven both understanding and adoption of AideRSS.

But as we turn to ever-proliferating online sources to stay informed, overload is unavoidable.

In January 2007, the folks at AideRSS set their sights on improving a technology that was itself created to help manage information glut: Really Simple Syndication, or RSS.

Their plan? To help people “Read What Matters”.

Chapter 1: First Past the Post

While RSS was useful for streaming dozens (or even hundreds) of information sources into a digestibly at-a-glance format, it had no inherent ranking or filtering system. AideRSS stepped into that qualitative void with PostRank.
PostRank assigns a numeric score from 1.0 to 10.0 (with an accompanying colour indicator) to every item in an RSS feed.

Items can be news stories, blog posts, articles, or other media. PostRank’s algorithms derive their numbers based on the 5Cs of social engagment: Creating, Critiquing, Chatting, Collecting, and Clicking.

A PostRank score is an indication of each item’s relevance to its audience. Different types of engagement receive different weighting.

Launched in July 2007, the service was an instant hit. In its first day, 45,000 RSS feeds were submitted for analysis and today AideRSS tracks more than 200,000. To date, over 70 million posts have been evaluated.

The company’s goal is to be a globally recognized brand for filtering, ranking, and overall management of RSS feeds.

Meeting those goals requires a mature team, smart ideas, and great execution. AideRSS has been working hard to bring all three together.

“While the initial product is still the core of what we do, what we’re building on top of it has definitely undergone tweaks and iterations and always will. We will be constantly adjusting based on market/user feedback. Our fans have, and absolutely will continue to, help us shape our strategic direction.”

Writing Chapter 2 (without a Chapter 11)

Having demonstrated the value in helping people “Read What Matters”, the team at AideRSS turned their attention to growth, closing their first round of financing in December 2007. A second round of financing is in the works for the latter half of 2008.

Sold on the company’s potential and interested in building on its strong strategic and tactical foundations, CEO Carol Leaman came on board in March 2008.

“Since the launch of the service, the market has proven many times over that the idea was sound and the market need was absolutely there.”

Polishing PostRank™
With the introduction of the postrank.com website and Thematic PostRank, AideRSS has extended the customization and personal relevance of the PostRank technology.

In addition to being able to filter and rank a group of feeds or news sources against their own individual historical levels of engagement, users can now group stories or posts from different sources based on topics or themes.

Thematic PostRank then ranks those posts against each other based on based on the algorithm’s social engagement metrics.

Chapter 3: An open approach to growth

AideRSS’ API has also drawn significant attention from both third-party developers and major players in the RSS space. In April 2008, NewsGator enhanced their NewsGator Online RSS reader with AideRSS’ PostRank functionality, and in early May announced that NetNewsWire 4.0 would include PostRank.

The Google Reader extension has proven enormously popular as well.

Chapter 4: Character Development

AideRSS plans to grow their 10-person team into 2009 with the addition of three development/technical personnel.

Like many Waterloo-area companies, AideRSS takes advantage of its relationship with the University of Waterloo (of which founder Grigorik is an alumnus) to find employees, and creates and nurtures co-op work placements.

“In our experience the level of knowledge and talent in the co-op pool is outstanding. We want to get the best and brightest early and provide them with a great working environment. Our goal is to develop them into long-term, highly engaged employees who have serious domain expertise, and therefore give us strong competitive advantage.”

Chapter 5: A Plot Twist

One recent strategic decision was to hire a Community Manager, a move more common at Silicon Valley start-ups than in Waterloo. When asked why they decided to invest in the largely non-technical role at this early stage, Leaman explained:

“We consider the role critical to the product and space we’re in. Investing in it will enable us to gain maximum benefit from our early adopters and growing base of users, as it’s a key link between them and our development team. Our target market is totally online and engaged in all aspects of social media.

NOT having someone on this full-time would impede our growth and success. We consider ourselves fortunate to have both realized this need early, and to have found an amazing Community Manager to fill the role.”

The next chapter: the future of (Aide)RSS

While growing and nurturing its userbase is a priority, the company’s long-term goal is to help RSS become a ‘everyday’ technology. According to Grigorik, changing how RSS is perceived is the first battle.

“Our core user base for the time being remains technically savvy people. Enhancements to the technology and applications that make RSS completely transparent to the common user are where things will go, and we’re going to be a significant part of that.”
– Carol Leaman

“People look at RSS as a utility, rather than as a technology. What the catalyst for changing this perception will be remains unclear. More likely than not, it will be a combination of many applications.”

Leaman adds that the succcess of RSS technologies (and thus AideRSS’ future) lies with the average online user.

Though the goal of improving the value of RSS for every Internet user is no small feat, AideRSS is doing what it takes to win: listening to its users, expanding product functionality, finding partners, and growing their team.

In a world where noise is increasingly called news, the company is working hard to help everyone “Read What Matters”.