Nokia's Xpress Now Focuses on Content Discovery
Nokia recently announced Xpress Now, a companion app for its Xpress Browser that is meant to help users find content on the web. The app culls what content is being consumed by the 80 million users of the Xpress Browser to create recommendations based on trending stories and what it thinks each individual user might like to see. "Nokia Xpress Now is about discovering interesting stories and new content based on the wisdom of the crowd," explain Andy Kelm, Vice President, Nokia Xpress Services. "It's not a magazine, a story or a group of curated RSS feeds, but rather a collection of interesting web content that is always changing." The app presents content in three categories: What's Hot, You May Also Like, and Most Liked. The first delivers a raw feed of what's been most-viewed in the user's area, the second makes recommendations based on the user's interests, and the third provides a view of what other users have given the thumbs up. Nokia Xpress Now is being tested on Asha phones in India right now, and Nokia expects to expand its availability over time.
I like that at least part of what is shown is going to be based on crowd sourcing with the "Most Liked" category.
The "You May Also Like" offerings are always a concern for me as it implies Nokia tracks my viewing. I always wonder how anonymous and how persistent that information is.
"What is Hot" may be abused into pushing topics that result in revenue rather than what the title suggests.
It should be interesting to see how it plays out. I do not always like to have information pushed at me but there are times when it is interesting to follow a suggestion or two.