Today Particls, billed by many as an RSS feed manipulator/organizer, came out of invitation-only testing with a host of tools for users. Particls essentially serves as a proportioning alert filter that notifies the user via news ticker, pop-up alerts and mobile SMS messaging prioritized according to user needs. The service has many refined consumer side tools, but there is a publisher/developer aspect that adds another dimension to what CEO Chris Saad terms "an attention management engine."
Particls was launched in January of 2006 by Chris Saad, Co-Founder and CEO of Faraday Media, and Co-Founder Ashley Angell. The company has been in private alpha with over 2000 testers and now public beta promises to further refine Particls.
Perhaps it is best to describe what Particles is not, in order to paint an accurate picture of the development. The service is decidedly not a newsreader, but it is an advanced alerts platform. The information service operates in the background and is secondary to a user's primary tasks - but it still allows for instant access to critical information.
Particls is not a widget or gadget engine, because the output adapters are each designed to consume varying levels of user attention. The service basically ranks incoming information by personal relevance to the user and reduces unwanted data input.
Particls ticker and basic UI
Basic Functions
Advanced Features
Particls UI, ticker, right click and other advanced features
As you can see, Particles is a rather more intelligent utility than a simple reader or widget. The heart of this innovation's philosophy is defined by the "Policy of Diminishing Attention Consumption", best described graphically below.
Diminishing Attention Consumption
Particls allows developers to maximize utility through SubscriptionHelpers (to let users grab new XMP data from Soft APIs, re-skin the ticker to personal user preferences, write input/output adapters) and via the inTouch programs. Developers have two levels of customized news and alerts systems for their readers/subscribers. These custom embeddable widgets extend a site's reach and branding capabilities while providing second tier users Particls' innovative features.
InTouch Basic allows for simple integration of Particls by simply typing the URL to RSS/Atom Feed or OPML and copying the embed code. The inTouch Partner program provides more advanced integration, customization and flexibility. Particls can be skinned to re-brand the service, alert users to more content from the host site, gain insight into readers' interests and offer revenue sharing to partners. Both versions of inTouch are free services supported by ads, but Particls is also offering a partner version free of ads at a low subscription fee.
Particls is a simple service to use, but it is also a complex and innovative set of rich tools for filtering data. The re-branding capability for developers is of particular importance, as revenue sharing and content distribution will allow for superb growth potential. From a site developer/blogger perspective, Particls seems almost indispensable. Particls is the culmination of Web 2.0 technologies we have seen directed at solving our growing data overload problem. RSS and feeds will never be the same after today in my view, as the bar has been raised substantially by Particls. Potential developers and users can lean more about extending Particls on these wiki pages and in Tangler.
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No Mac version = broken hearted me. Love this stuff.
Posted by: Marshall Kirkpatrick | May 28, 2007 4:33 PM
No sure who is going to use this or you guys are just looking for something to write about.
Jon
Posted by: Jon | May 28, 2007 4:41 PM
Well, Particls may be interesting, but I'm astounded by the www.particls.com Web site: No document type declaration; no external style sheets; inline CSS; table layout; the charset is windows-1252...Accessibility, interoperability, internationalization...anyone?
This is not the Web site I'd expect from a ground-breaking, change-the-way-we-all-use RSS, Web 0.3 kind of technology.
Posted by: Astounded | May 28, 2007 5:36 PM
It might be just be, but after reading this article I still don't have the slightest clue of what Particle actually is and what it does for me...
Posted by: Tim Molendijk | May 28, 2007 5:42 PM
This is a great idea and concept. I mean we are overloaded with so many web2.0 application and this service bring a relief as streaming news based on interests makes more sense for people that subscribing to RSS feeds and receiving them like email.
I like the concept that general information can be displayed on a news ticker, important stuff might appear on a popup alert and urgent information could be SMS'd to your phone. Good way of advertising to MoM's
Posted by: Parveen Panwar | May 28, 2007 6:43 PM
I see Particls as a very well connected filter. I can dump into it all of the feeds and sources that I want to aggregate and it gives me the information I need out the other end.
The key part for me is volume control. RSS readers just give me everything. They don't distinguish whether I want to be interrupted or whether I want peace. Particls let's me quickly change this through the day.
Yep - I'm a fan boy for many reasons. I can only encourage you to test it out for a week before you comment too much.
Talk about the pros and cons of it here;
http://www.tangler.com/group/5556
Posted by: Mick Liubinskas | May 28, 2007 7:05 PM
These are some of the ugliest screenshots I've ever come across on a blog. Please upgrade your operating system and web browser, hide your bulky toolbars, and increase your color depth above 8 bit when taking screenshots.
Posted by: Dan Grossman | May 28, 2007 7:57 PM
I think Particls is very useful & clever in terms of being able to slog thru the enormous amounts of Info we're all barraged with each day* & if it Highlights whass really Important to U & presents it as such that is highly desirable!
I miss my old Feedreader AlmondRocks* ;))
Posted by: BillyWarhol | May 28, 2007 8:03 PM
Point well taken Dan. Perhaps I tried to capture too much but I actually tested the service and hurried the screen shots. If you need better pics some of the other blogs copy and pasted the press releases and external screen shots, which are quite clear if limited in scope. :)
Billy, I am glad you like it. The service is actually pretty deep and beyond the cursory glance most people would be inclined to give it. I suggest using it for a bit as it is quite efficient.
Marshall, Chris assures me that they are on the Mac issue. I obviously need a mac or something soon :)
Posted by: Phil Butler | May 28, 2007 8:37 PM
That's fantasic Phil. Now can l get all my updates from this service easily?
Posted by: Christina | May 28, 2007 8:54 PM
Still not sure what it's all about, but that never stopped me from trying.
Posted by: Deepak | May 28, 2007 9:49 PM
Windows only? No Mac or Linux versions?
How do you expect anyone to be interested in this if it only works on one platform? I can't even test this thing out!
Is it really that hard to program using a multi-OS toolkit such as wxWidgets?
Posted by: HMTKSteve | May 29, 2007 3:39 AM
Phillip, once again you have written a very informative article and I am anxious to develop a close relationship with Particls!
Posted by: Michael Parrish | May 29, 2007 6:40 AM
Lots of criticism here for a product coming out of Alpha. I think that's why they call it testing. Apple and Linux always lags behind.
Why bother with an insignificant part of the market until PC bugs are worked out. Ir would not be cost effective for a new product.
There is certainly nothing wrong with constructive comments, but some of this is just silly.
Posted by: digitalnomad | May 29, 2007 7:32 AM
Anything like this that saves time will eventually emerge as a winner. There are just too many stand alone services out there, and more on the way that chew up resources and time.
Posted by: digitalnomad | May 29, 2007 7:40 AM
I love you guys and appreciate all the comments. Steve you complained in a past life when the first wheel only fit one type of ox cart man. I know you Mr. Cynicism, that's why I wrote the article Steve so that you would be driven crazy and have to rely on my testing of the wheel until a version comes out for your chariot. :)
Nomad hit the nail on the head, even great startups like me.dium does not work in IE7. The list is too long to iterate here, but think positively.
As for the function, I can break it down into its simplest form. It can find or take one RSS feed and transmit that to the top of your browser in a ticker. This can also be turned off and a notifier pop-up relays the same function. The tabs for this info are drag and dropable and "smart", they can be placed on the desktop and manipulated in several ways to "tweak" or otherwise customize input. Essentially, your news/data can be "trained" to feed you only the specific types of information you really use. So, you get to "tailor" exactly what you want to be notified of.
That is the stone wheel version, the battlestar version can condense 500 feeds into a very narrow stream of customized notifications that will eventually be exactly what you need to see. The need for a feed reader will essentially be negated and the user will save hundreds of hours of their lives. The developer aspects allow for extending a blog or site's reach, tracking visitor habits and they can be monetized.
Let me know if I can help explain or get information for you guys about this or any technology. I will make every effort to squeeze the answers out of the develpers.
Phil
Posted by: Phil Butler | May 29, 2007 8:20 AM
Interesting, interesting and ... interesting. I'd like to add: good news. I still use FeedBurner (which, by the way, will be bought by Google) and Google news allerts but this thing sounds like the right technology to help me deal with the data I need each day...
Posted by: Mihaela Lica | May 29, 2007 10:17 AM
Phil,
For this to be truly useful it should be browser-based.
I use ten or twenty different computers everyday. I ended up writing my own private bookmarking/RSS feed agreggation system that resides on my webserver in a private directory.
This allows me to keep tabs on everything I need to keep tabs on and do it from anywhere I am!
The idea behind this system is good but locking me into installing software on every computer I use is a waste of my time. Making it Windows-only is just plain wrong. There are plenty of toolkits out there which could have been used to write this software without locking into Windows.
Only a short-sighted programmer would choose to lock themselves in with one OS. Yes, I am a programmer. I made the mistake of writing for Windows-only in the past. Never again!
Posted by: HMTKSteve | May 29, 2007 10:29 AM
I agree Steve and I was just poking fun at you. You know that man. The thingy is still in the embryonic stage and I am sure they are down with these issues as we speak. I cannot imagine not having Mac and Linux versions available at some juncture, but as Nomad said, they are probably getting one right before marching off into other OS issues.
You brought up something interesting though, why can't this be a firefox and other add on like me.dium? Perhaps this is a point for later development. With today's technology it would seem to be a quick switch?
Posted by: Phil Butler | May 29, 2007 10:53 AM
Looks like I am going to have to have a little look at this. Fortunately I do have a Windows box in my lineup
There used to be good reasons to develop on specific platforms only including promotional incentives, just look at the games market and "exclusive" deals on a particular platform.
Posted by: Andy Beard | May 29, 2007 3:25 PM
Guys thank you for your great comments and feedback
Phil - you have worked out exactly what we are doing and explained it wonderfully!
On the issue of cross-platform compatibility, people give Microsoft very little credit. By building in .NET we have the option to port this to Mac/Linux (Mono) AND to the web.
As DigitalNomad says, however, the key is to get it right first. The technology can then be ported to all sorts of places and scenarios.
We are listening closely though - so please keep the great feedback coming.
Cheers,
Chris
Posted by: Chris Saad | May 29, 2007 8:25 PM
Great review and very useful comments above. I have to agree that the "attention issue" is important, but I think that the client approach should be more "stumble upon", and browser based. Perhaps that is just impossible, but I tend to just want these things in my firefox to make any potential integration issues go away. I have to say that I would LOVE an alerter that took all my email alerts (MS, Yahoo, Goog) and put them in one place! Will follow this story with some interest.
Posted by: Paul Sweeney | May 30, 2007 3:33 AM
Great review and very useful comments above. I have to agree that the "attention issue" is important, but I think that the client approach should be more "stumble upon", and browser based. Perhaps that is just impossible, but I tend to just want these things in my firefox to make any potential integration issues go away. I have to say that I would LOVE an alerter that took all my email alerts (MS, Yahoo, Goog) and put them in one place! Will follow this story with some interest.
Posted by: Paul Sweeney | May 30, 2007 3:38 AM
Thanks Paul, I like the email aspect you suggest too especially if it could be filtered some way. Actually, filtering of these notifiers will have to get more functionality as our attention will otherwise be "soaked up" watching notifiers. :o)
Posted by: Phil Butler | May 30, 2007 2:45 PM