Yes, it is my new best friend. A digg-like news and resource aggregator that filters based on the popularity of content. At its peak, I had over 100 search and marketing related blogs on my reader before turning to Yahoo Pipes to mash them up in hopes of finding the gems among so much content. No offense to my favorite bloggers (and I’ll put myself in that camp) but no one can catch all the most important news, share the best advice, and keep us entertained without missing anything important. The fact is, though I’ve narrowed the list of my favorite marketing bloggers down to 5 or 6 (okay… who am I kidding? there is another good one every day), we need a filter. A round of applause for…. Sphinn.
To share both sides of the story, in truth, there is that occasional doubting Thomas, the Sphinndisaries (or is Sphinnians better? Sphinn + villain? No, Sphinnians sounds to much like Yahoos or Canaanites). There are folks that believe Sphinn will be as easily gamed as Digg or resigned to a mere popularity contest as industry leaders (or should I just say “known personalities”) prop up their peers. That Sphinn will degrade into a simple news portal ruled by editors who, though more of them than a news site, control who and what appears is certainly a possibility and I’ll be the first to admit these possibilities and the fact that I too Sphinned (Sphunn?) Tanner’s article (in his defense, he’s a fan).
Alright let me digress a moment. How does one concisely say that they’ve rated a post on Sphinn? Have I Sphunn it? It has been Sphinned? Perhaps Sphann as in, “I sphann your article” I like that! You could Sphann the flames of demand for a post! or perhaps you are a Sphann of my blog?
Let’s regress
For every Sphanntagonist we can find a Sphinndicator (or is that better used as in “leading Sphinndicators: an indication of potential blog popularity based on existing Sphinn demand”?) The true fans that will help fuel the Sphinndex (okay, you can tell me to cut it out now) submitting valuable content and using the platform for that which it was intended: A beacon of hope in this hazy storm of SEO content, you might say, a Sphoracle (the Sphoracle at Sphelphi? …. No, I’ve gone too far).
Add Sphinn to your default pages, your list of top resources. No matter how it shakes out, for a time, you can’t go wrong leveraging Sphinn to cut through the clutter. Feel free to Stalk me, you can safely put me in that group of Sphanns who will do my best to see this turn into one of our most valuable tools. And if you’re so inclined, Sphinn this.
I have about 575 feeds in subscribe to, because I figure that good posts come from every level of blogging, but the big guys sort of get a free ride once they get to that point.
You are right. Sphinn is a good filter