Ask HN: Do you use Twine? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Do you use Twine?

4 pointsmetaguri3 comments

I was wondering how many people on here use Twine. I signed up some time ago, poked around, subscribed to some twines, but have not posted. I find much of the content to be Semantic Web-oriented (understandable), but I also can't quite figure out what makes it different from a link-sharing site (i.e. HN).

In my attempt to investigate I came across an interesting interview with Nova Spivack, the founder of Radar Networks / Twine, here:

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kermit-pattison/fast-talk/twine-binds-qa-nova-spivack

It definitely helped to clarify the [stated] purpose of Twine. Yet, in spite of all of Twine's special semweb abilities I learned about, going back to the site I can't quite seem to understand,what makes it more than a link-sharing site.

Can you please enlighten me? Am I missing something major? I'm really curious, because the interview (and the idea of the semantic web) are really interesting, but I can't quite seem to connect the ideas to the actual site. Thanks!

The big difference at this point in time, as best I can tell, is Twine's ability to auto-discover relevant content tags for you when you submit links -- tags I might not have entered or certainly that I wouldn't have taken the time to enter since I never enter more than four or five tags but it is not uncommon for twine to discover a dozen or more. Given that richer set of tags, it is more likely that it can do a better job finding related content and interesting linkages between content.

I think Twine, as it exists now, is really an app to feed their internal engine with interesting data that they'll one day use to reveal their real application and it's not to difficult to imagine that such an application might involve a switch from passive data collection to active data discovery with intelligent summarization, but that's just my best guess.

<i>Twine's ability to auto-discover relevant content tags for you when you submit links</i>

Does delicious not do that as well? It also suggests relevant tags which I might not have thought of. Many of these tags are learnt from other users who have added the same link

I felt the same way. After using it for a few days, I just gave up. I am not sure what additional advantage it gives over either a link sharing site like HN or my bookmarking site like Delicious

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