There are many sites that try to help consumers keep a pulse on the buzz of what’s happening on the web. StumbleUpon, iLike, and others all try to help users search for and find specific, personalized content on the web that may be appealing to them. SwingVine is trying to serve this purpose by aggregating data and news from across the web, analyzing the volume of online buzz, the reputation of various sources, user interactions on the site itself, and other information to surface the the most popular and noteworthy content on the web. It’s a hybrid of an aggregator of information on pop culture and news and an analytics site that actually measures what people are looking for on the web.
Content on SwingVine spreads over a number of verticals including music, movies, technology, gadgets, fashion and more. When you click on a recent story or album, you will be led to a page that includes a detailed description of the subject, related media, video and images, and a RSS feed of blogs and news sites that have written about the topic. You can also rate and comment on the item, and share your comment on Facebook, Digg or MySpace.
SwingVine is designed to be a discovery search engine for people to not only see what’s buzzing on the web, but also make sense of it. It’s purpose is noble; with so much content emerging on the web, from music to movies to news and tech gadgets, there is a need for a tool to help people know what’s worth reading into.
SwingVine will face the challenge of competing with small yet well-funded niche social search engines like OneRiot and Blekko, that also offer users a way to see the chatter on the web. And of course, Google Trends and Twitter’s trending topics sites like TweetMeme also serve a similar purpose as SwingVine.
