The Alltop Information Funnel

Alltop is an RSS news aggregator that pulls in content from thousands of sources from around the internet.. so you don’t have to.

Alltop is like an online magazine rack for all your favourite topics.. for stuff like social media, food, travel, photography, news, law, football, education, finance.. plus hundreds of other topics, from over 32,000 information sources.

The main purpose of Alltop is to help you answer the question “What’s happening?”, in all the topics that interest you.

So how is this different from using a search engine like Google?

Google is good at answering questions like How many people live in China?.. but has a much harder time at answering the question What’s happening in China?

This is where Alltop comes in.

Dan Roam, author of The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures illustrates the difference between using Google and Alltop nicely,

The Google Approach:

The Alltop Approach:

Alltop collects the headlines of the latest stories, from the best sites and blogs on a particular topic.

For example, checkout the Social Media page on Alltop.

These collections are grouped into individual web pages.. and the five most recent headlines of these information sources (as well as their first paragraph), are displayed,

Everytime one of  these blogs publishes a new article, it will be automatically displayed in Alltop.

Fresh, new and dynamic content.. all the time.

Searching for Topics

There are a number of ways to search for topics in Alltop.

1. You can enter a search term in the search box.. then click on <Search>,

2. You can click on a category to view all related topics,

3. You can search alphabetically by clicking on a letter,

4. Or you could search all topics on one page,

MyAlltop

The cool thing with Alltop is that you can create your own page and choose your own topics with up to 100 feeds.

Your MyAlltop page has its own unique URL, so you can share your page with your friends by emailing them your URL.

People can even subscribe to your MyAlltop page via RSS.

Create Your MyAlltop Account

Go to the <MyAlltop> tab, then click on <create an account>,

Enter your username, email address and choose a password.. then click on <Sign Up>,

Confirm your email address when you receive the confirmation email,

Next, click on the Alltop logo to go to the Alltop homepage,

Adding Feeds to your MyAlltop Page

Firstly search for the topics that interest you (refer to the section above on searching for topics)..

If you are looking for suggestions, Alltop have provided a startkit with a good selection of general topics.

When you have found a topic that you want to add to your MyAlltop page.. click on the + (plus) symbol to add it to your page,

You can add up to 100 feeds to your MyAlltop page.

Managing your MyAlltop Page

You can delete and re-arrange your feeds by clicking on Manage Feeds at the bottom of the page,

From here you can re-arrange feeds by dragging and dropping.. and delete feeds by clicking on the x near their name,

MyAlltop URL

Once your MyAlltop page is setup you can easily share your topics with your friends by sending them your MyAlltop URL.

To get your URL click on the MyAlltop tab,

Your URL will be displayed in the address bar of your browser,

You can share your URL with your friends by emailing it to them.. or by tweeting it out on Twitter or Sharing it on Facebook (at the bottom of the page),

Finally..

Alltop and MyAlltop are great filtering solutions that allow you to stay informed with the latest news and happenings, on all your favourite topics.

You are presented more relevant and specific information of your choosing, in a clean and manageable interface.

Searching for information on Google will always happen.. but knowing how to funnel information and have it delivered to you can greatly enhance your internet experience.

If you liked this post please register to receive The Social Media Guide’s free newsletter that’s packed with tips, guides and more!

Most of these posts are available to download for free as PDFs for registered members.

Please help spread the word by becoming a fan of The Social Media Guide on Facebook,

And following me on Twitter,

Enjoy!