Reddit Opens Up

Reddit took a risky step today and opened up their algorithm of how they rank stories to the public. I’ve written before about how opening your site’s code to the public can be risky. The real threat with Reddit is people learning the nuances of the algorithm and then gaming the system to get their posts undeservedly to the front page.

Reddit, Digg, Google and any other site that ranks has kept their ranking algorithm a secret for a reason. The algorithm, in theory, is supposed to present an accurate representation of how the collective would rank the items displayed. This is all theory, however, and in practice, there are always ways to game the system. This is why Google constantly tweaks their algorithm (to the frustration of SEO companies everywhere).

This risk that Reddit is taking could lead to great things. We might see a group collaboration behind perfecting the algorithm. Or we might see a few sites getting a disproportionate amount of front page views. My guess is that we’ll see the latter before we see the former. Feel free to check out the code for yourself here. As Techcrunch points out, Digg is still the leader in this category.

Update: Techrunch has taken the code and made a Reddit copycat site. Let the copycats and gaming begin!

Google Could Learn from Shakespeare

Last night I attended a performance of Hamlet at Shakespeare in the Park. For all those who don’t know, Shakespeare in the Park is a free performance given throughout the summer in an outdoor theater in Central Park. Tickets are given out to those who wait on line for hours on the morning of the show (for more info, click here). The play was great and the actors were amazing. Like many Shakespeare plays, the producers/directors put their own spin on the classic. Last night’s performance had a very modern take on Hamlet. The soldiers were holding guns. Background sounds of combat filled the air with planes and bombs. The settings may change but the Shakespearian themes stay true.

The interesting thing happened at the end when the story was completely altered from other versions of Hamlet that I’ve seen. I don’t want to give away what happened, for those who might see it, but I found it interesting that the words of Shakespeare stayed the same but this interpretation almost contradicted those words. It was fine. It’s nice to see a different spin on Shakespeare.

This scenario made me think of the current openness trend on the web. Every major company is opening their site up for others to use through APIs. The concepts of data portability and connecting content (Open Social, Facebook going open source, etc..) seem to be building towards an architecture of the web that will allow developers to create applications that are not possible today. These sites, the Googles and Facebooks of the world, think they can write the words to the play and understand how these words will be used in practice. The developers, however, will create the play and will end up interpreting the words as they see fit, even if it’s contradictory to what was originally intended.