NewsTrust

Take a look at NewsTrust (http://beta.newstrust.net), the month old news “filter” that reproduces and ranks those stories that get the votes of members. NewsTrust is non-profit and runs no ads, depending, as far as I can see, on the founder’s funds and the kindness of strangers. You must join to rank and review news stories, but beyond that requirement it’s strictly vox pop when it comes to what’s good, trustworthy, accurate etc. in the news. Which is not to say that’s a bad thing: some intelligence in the gang approach.

There’s a piece about it in the San Jose Mercury News (number 55 on this week’s “top rated sources”) that compares NewsTrust with Digg, and also gives a lot of background about the guy who started the thing, Fabrice Florin.

NewsTrust is clear about how it selects its sources and how it promotes articles to the front page fo the site. That said, I find the sources still too U.S.-centric, and too often based in print media. The BBC, for example, is way, way down the line of “trusted sources,” well below the Daily Show, for example; and the CBC doesn’t appear (yet?) at all. This is not how I’d rank things, but then vox pop and I aren’t always ad idem.

Still, it’s early days yet for NewsTrust, so give it a try alongside whatever other news aggregating sites you use. Better: join and see if your review and votes can shift things a little to the…