At first glance, Newsvine appears to be something you'd get if you put Google News, Digg, and del.icio.us together. But it is so much more. Here is a quick preview of features (in no particular order):
1) Tags. Want to read Apple related news? Just go to http://www.newsvine.com/apple! Here is a screen-shot:
2) Vote for stories. Stories with higher votes will gain importance. This way, Newsvine readers get to decide which stories are important.
3) Seeding. If you find a good news story, you can 'seed' it into Newswine. When you do this, you get to pick the appropriate tags to assign to the story.
4) Discuss, chat, and comment on stories.
5) Local news. Seattle news, for example, is at http://seattle.newsvine.com/. Here is a screen-shot:
6) Users can write their own columns. This is what Mike has to say about this:
Since Newsvine is essentially produced by its readers, it is only fitting that its readers may also become writers. Anyone can sign up for a free Newsvine account and begin writing their column within minutes. Anytime you write an article or Seed Newsvine with a link to another article, it will appear in your column (at "yourname.newsvine.com") and elsewhere around the site, depending on how it's tagged.
Getting your own column on Newsvine isn't only free but you'll also keep advertising earnings associated with traffic to your pages. While other companies charge you for your own space to write or keep all the ad revenue themselves, we're happy to help you make money whenever you add value to Newsvine.
7) RSS Feeds, Watch lists, AJAX goodies, and so much more!
The above is not a comprehensive list - I'm still exploring Newsvine. Needless to say, I'm extremely impressed. Watch out Google News (beta)!
Nitesh Dhanjani is a well known security researcher, author, and speaker. Dhanjani has been invited to talk at various information security events such as the Black Hat Briefings, RSA, Hack in the Box, Microsoft Blue Hat, and OSCON.
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