BloggersBase, established a scant three months ago and based in Herzeliya, Israel, may just be the hottest thing on the Web right now. The start-up’s platform is based on what is called crowd-sourcing or that technique where the site’s power is created by the content provided by bloggers and moderated by influential readers.
It is also a delivery platform for media companies such as newspapers, magazines, leading blogs, and broadcast networks. Nothing new about this, you might say, as this kind has been in existence before. The difference with BloggersBase is its elite quality. It aims to screen only the best, thereby moderating the overflow of materials that are otherwise common, uncontrolled, and usually of low quality. The result is professional quality stuff that enables media groups to ‘incorporate premium user generated content into their offerings’ at ‘practically no extra cost.’
At the very least, BloggersBase is a B2C for bloggers and readers with a dash of online citizen journalism. It is packaged as a multi-authored blog in magazine format that expectedly offers a variety of topics. It operates as a ‘competition-based discovery platform that aggregates content from bloggers for readers to sift through via topic or subject matter.’ As such, BloggersBase writers/contributors have their posts read and rated by readers on such qualifications as professionalism, presentation, value, and writing style. The blog post that garners high ratings climbs up to the top of the page.
Each participating blogger/contributor has a profile box that shows his or her ratings, number of posts, and popularity. Information on writers include: writer points under the category he or she writes, average article rating, number of posts written, highest rated article, most read post, number of users that favor the writer, writer’s most recent article, success meter, and the writer’s maximum number of successive appearances. All in all, the profile box shows the writer’s site credentials. The site also features the top bloggers on BloggersBase.
The site’s premium user generated content discovery hopes to monetize the blogs through such strategies as a delivery platform for media companies to help sift through and organize citizen journalist’s content. One example is its online contest where bloggers not only get discovered and gain exposure but also win prizes. Truly, a filtering mechanism to screen the best of the blogosphere amidst millions of blogs.
BloggersBase is funded by Israeli entrepreneur Yossi Vardi and VoiP pioneer Jeff Pulver. The multi-awarded Vardi is most famous for being the original investor in ICQ – the first Internet-wide instant messaging system. Pulver, an IP/Internet communications expert, is the publisher of the Pulver Report and VON Magazine.
With its objective to filter only the best, BloggersBase is poised to outpace the competition from such similar platforms as the cash-paying blogger content-generating Helium and online news sites that use citizen journalism such as Newsvine and CNN iReport.
