GetCalhoun.com Blog

Local news may be returning to GetCalhoun.com. Let me explain.

I am experimenting with my own version of what they call "curated" news. That is, placing little snips of news from various reporters all over the net on a page with links out to the full articles.

Most of the stories come from Google News which is in itself a huge news aggregation agent or curator. And most of those stories come from local sources, with the Anniston Star being a big one. The Star has always been a major historical source of news prep for just about every other news reporting place locally. The difference today and in years past elsewhere is that some of their material, (as well as many other reporting places) finds its way into my curated news through Google with full attribution and links back.

So, why not just go to the source to begin with? I have no good argument for that, except to say that you can get stories that I find interesting at a glance...and I mean at a glance. You find something you like, click and you're on the source site. That's news curation for you. It's so new that the spell checker doesn't even recognize the term.

Besides local and regional news, you'll find national and global articles. Also videos.

If you're a Drudge fan, you might see some similarity in my page format and his. It is not an accident. Talking about news curation! Drudge was doing it before it was cool! And he's one of the top breaking news sites on the net.

Of course, here at GC, there is just me. It's not like I have even a modest news room, and the temptation is always to be doing something else. Even curation takes a sizable amount of time. So, I'll see how it goes, and see how the page views go, then I'll see if it will continue or not. Personally, I think daily news, even the curated variety, adds spice and credibility to tiny little GC.

Bookmark the Calhoun County regional news page and pop by to see what's new each day. Try it out.

Norm