Valleywag Mistake Trouble for Robot News Aggregators?
Breaking news this morning, by the way of Valleywag, was that Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg cashed out on $40 million dollars worth of Facebook stock. Turns out that wasn’t true. It was a rumor, but because Valleywag covered it, it quickly spread to other notable blogs like Silicon Alley Insider, Mashable!, and many many others. It’s because they all basically read each other and the moment something breaks nobody wants to be the last person to talk about it.
This might spell trouble for robot aggregators (which I personally love) like Techmeme and Blogrunner. They just automatically pick up on the latest discussions. By early this afternoon Blog Runner had changed its headline and removed the other (editors?), Techmeme had not (I don’t see a way to link to a Techmeme discussion). I’m always checking these sources several times a day (mostly because I’m bored), but for some they may only check it once and get the wrong info. Despite having the backing of the authority of The New York Times Company, Blog Runner basically lent its credibility to what turned out to be a false rumor. How could a robot know what’s a rumor or not? This wont lead to me not using such sites, I think they have tremendous value, but it is something to keep in mind.