Get article recommendations from Pocket's latest update
Finding new articles to read is often a crapshoot, and you have to search to find content that interests you. Twitter, Facebook, and news readers are dictated by page views, and tend to favor real-time content that often has a short lifespan, relatively speaking. The end result of that is good content being shoved aside by what’s simply the newest material. How can you find really great, interesting content and save it to read later? Pocket thinks it has the right idea by rolling out a new Recommendations feed. Great concept, but let’s see how well it really works.
Algorithm-driven curation
Pocket has the idea that this feature will provide high-quality content without a lot of filler material. It takes advantage of the more than 2 billion items saved to Pocket so far, and the millions more that are added each day. From those articles, Pocket attempts to make recommendations based on the type of content you save and interact with. You can find the Recommendations feed alongside your list of saved articles.
Not quite ready for prime time
It’s a really great idea, but so far it doesn’t seem ready for prime time. In my list of saved articles, I’ve got things related to technology: an article about the Nest learning thermometer, news about Dropbox, and various iPad and iPhone app-related stories. When I flip over to my Recommendations tab, the first article is a story about the three-way family contest to become the next publisher of The New York Times. That isn’t exactly relevant to my reading habits, nor is the next article about the terrible teens or the Serena Williams story that comes in third. I had to scroll past five articles until I came across one that had anything remotely to do with technology.
Maybe it’ll get better
From what Pocket told iDownloadBlog, the more you save and interact with the app, the better the Recommendations get.
Training for a half-marathon? The more you save about running, the more likely it is you’ll start seeing high-quality running content to help you get ready for your race.
Getting Pocket Recommendations
Hopefully, it does improve, because right now it isn’t quite useful to me. Your mileage may vary, so be sure to check it out. Pocket is available for free on the App Store, and is designed for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. There aren’t any ads within the app, but it does include in-app purchases starting at $4.99 for a month of Pocket Premium.
