Feeds get better

We’ve just pushed out a few changes in our RSS feed generation that should make them work a bit better. There were a couple of cases causing RSS validation issues which we’ve sorted out. Please let us know at feedback@scouta.com if you are still having any issues with feeds.

Just as a reminder, here’s where you can find RSS from Scouta:

• Rated favourites per user at http://scouta.com/username/items. Insert any username you like, including your own. So, for example, my favourites list as RSS is http://scouta.com/members/gra/items
• Recommendations provided by Scouta at http://scouta.com/username/recommendations. Another example: see my personal recommendations feed at http://scouta.com/members/gra/recommendations
• The favourites in any group at http://scouta.com/groups/groupname/items. So, to get the faves in the Science group, try http://scouta.com/groups/Science/items. Setting up feeds for you favourite groups keeps you up to date.
• You can find the current top ten recommended items at http://scouta.com/top_10. We’re not really into driving everything from the top ten, but, well, maybe you like it?

You can, of course, take these feeds and stick them into desktop or web RSS reader applications or iTunes to give you a unique personal view of Scouta.

So, please have a play. And there’s more coming to feeds soon, including full Media RSS where we have the metadata available.

[Update: we just pushed out another little change to make RSS links work a little better.]

Scouta Play

Today we released a feature that’s been on the cards for a long time. We’ve called it Scouta Play.

Before launch we realized we needed something pretty snazzy and fun to show people what Scouta could do. You see, recommendations aren’t that simple to explain because they’re a relatively new concept for most of the world.

So we decided to create a little magic on the front page that would allow you to play a video or podcast, and then rate it. Depending on how and what you rate, Scouta would then recommend more.

Anyone can now experience Scouta’s recommendations without creating an account. Zip over to the Scouta front page and you’ll see what we mean. You can select to display videos, or podcasts, or both, and play them right then and there. If you like something, rate it good, and Scouta will start learning what you love.

If you like playing with the new front page, it’s worth creating a Scouta account. Member’s ratings are stored, so over time Scouta gets a better understanding of what you love, and the recommendations will be more accurate.

Anyway, have a Play and let us know what you think.

By the way, thanks to members abigsplash and sfarmer76, this release is named Indigo.