Magic

I think "magic" is the new buzzword of the day. I admit, I have only recently seen two uses of it in the last few days, but I am waiting for more. Apple announced its new mouse the other day - called the "Magic Mouse," the new multi-touch mouse is the innovative next version of the "Mighty Mouse."
I *really like* my mighty mouse - I just bought the wireless version of it, so I can imagine that the magic mouse is gonna be pretty awesome as well. If I hadn't JUST BOUGHT the wireless mighty, I would be headed towards the Apple store to pick up said magic. Only problem with the wireless version is that it does go through batteries more quickly than I would like. I have to get better about turning it off, but I think the batteries should last for at least a few months (like I have heard other wireless mice can manage), and at this point I am going through a new set once a month. Ok, I only have had the mouse for 6 weeks or so, but still.


And although Scholly makes fun of me every chance he gets for not being enough of a Twitter freak for collecting/publishing news minutia from our industry (and beyond), I confess I still love Google Reader. Reader just came out with a bunch of new features that are kinda cool, although mostly not particularly innovative. The one I did like though, at least based on how it sounded, was "Sort by Magic."


The idea behind it quite nice: you have 10 or 15 minutes in the day to use as you like and you want to quickly zip through the most interesting news of the moment. When you (normally) head over to Google Reader, you might be bombarded by 1000+ unread items, which is a bit challenging to skim, even with super-human speed reading skills. "Sort by Magic" helps you to read the items you normally would find the most interesting. How? By noting your reading patterns - which items do you read the most - and presenting you with a short list (seems like 10 articles) of the items you would be the most interested in.




Yeah, well, with a bit BUT. BUT I think the little program behind the innovation still needs some work. I keep sorting by magic to see what it comes up with during the day, and while I admit I read a lot of Mashable and Boing Boing, these are RARELY the first places I turn to. So overall - because of how many articles these two sites publish, the number of articles I read there may be more than anywhere else, they are not my first priority. So...hey Reader guys....please add some more intelligence to "Sort by Magic." Please consider taking into account 1) what I read first, 2) what I email most, 3) the headlines I click on to read the entire article, 4) keywords in articles I read most (e.g., "apple," "social media," "web analytics," "mobile," etc.) 5) the time of day, for starters. Better yet - let me help create the magic if I want to: give me the option of customizing the prioritization algorithm - let me say what factors are most important to me. Would make the magic ever so much more magiliscious...