Alltop.com has been a subject of controversy since it first appeared. Alltop.com founder Guy Kawasaki calls it an “online magazine rack of popular topics”. Some people think of Alltop as the dummy’s, or lazy person’s, version of an RSS feed aggregator. Can’t figure out how to set up Google Reader, Bloglines, or Netvibes? Hey, anyone can figure out Alltop!

Some people think it’s oversimplified, overblown, poorly designed, and a waste of $10,000 (the supposed cost of creating Alltop.com.) What was Guy thinking when he built this? What’s the point?

I think there are a number of important points here. I think Alltop, although rather simple, is cool. I think it’s better than some people give it credit for. And, furthermore, I think it’s got some great advantages.

Alltop is… Alltop… which is…

But let’s start things off properly and define this thing. Taking my cue from the “online magazine rack” comment from Alltop’s home page, let’s simply state what it is:

Alltop.com is a blog directory.

It’s a collection of blogs that can be searched by multiple means, including several variations of topic searches and the standard search box.

Each topic area within the website has its own domain, i.e.: sex.alltop.com; wine.alltop.com; socialmedia.alltop.com; canada.alltop.com [EDIT: Broadcasting Brain is listed in the social media and Canada Alltops, in the interest of disclosure]. This can make it easy to find the sub-Alltop that you want to examine by using the appropriate keyword in the blog URL.

Once you get into the sub-Alltops, you will see the 5 most recent post titles from each blog listed in this portion of the Alltop blog directory. If you place the mouse pointer on top of a blog post title, a window will display with the first paragraph or so of the contents of the post. Alltop gets its entries from the RSS feeds of the blogs that it aggregates.

It’s simple, it’s not perfect, but I think Alltop works just fine and it is simple to use. In fact, I would use it over other blog directories, e.g. MyBlogLog, Blog Catalog, and Technorati, because the interface is simple and direct. You are limited to searching the blogs that Alltop aggregates, but that’s no different than any other blog directory.

This is all pretty simple stuff but, as we know, sometimes simple tools are good for many people. Having said that, I’m going to suggest ways that you can make good use of this tool.

Who benefits?

The way that I see it, there are four key groups of people who can benefit from using Alltop.com:

1. The casual reader
2. The blogger/content creator
3. The professional/researcher
4. The marketer/entrepreneur

Here’s what I think each group can get from using Alltop:

The casual reader

The casual reader’s benefit is pretty obvious: it’s a simple way to find blogs to read. You don’t need to use Google Blog Search, Google Search in general, or any other guide. It’s a simple, direct way to find blogs to read. There’s plenty of popular categories to read about in addition to more specialized topics. Frankly, sometimes you don’t know what you want to read and you’d rather browse. There you go, it’s the “online magazine rack” in action.

The blogger/content creator

Again, the blogger/content creator can derive benefit by being listed in Alltop. It’s a no-brainer. I don’t get a lot of traffic from Alltop compared to other sources, but I do get some. And it’s decent traffic: the people who come in through Alltop don’t tend to bounce out too quickly.

In short, Alltop is one of those websites that can help grow the social media audience, in effect creating a rising tide that lifts all blogs.

The professional/researcher

Alltop is a place where you can start your research for reports, articles, white papers, and other blog posts. You can use it to skim through very recent writings on various topics. This in turn can lead other related writings. It’s a launching point. In this respect, it’s a bit similar to Wikipedia.org: a first stop for research, not the last or only stop. You can do more focused research via Google or some other search engine, but sometimes you want to see how big a lake really is before diving and swimming for some distant point.

Ultimately Alltop can be another tool used by professionals who do research for a living.

The marketer/entrepreneur

The marketer or entrepreneur can benefit from using Alltop similar to the way that the professional/research can, although the intent might be different. The marketer might not use Alltop to immediate create directed reports or white papers; the entrepreneur probably won’t. However, both can use Alltop not just as a means to research specific topics, but rather to search in a more generalized, holistic manner.

Alltop quickly displays what people in a given topic area are writing about right now. You can quickly see which writers are writing about similar topics: this gives you a feel for whatever ideas are bouncing through the echo chamber at any given time and you can see trends starting to form. It’s not necessarily the most scientific way to do it, but it can be used in this fashion.

One last thought about the usefulness of Alltop.com

Above all, Alltop.com could be useful to some people because of its simple interface. I think some people will find the categorization by topic to be more useful than similar functions in other blog directories or in search engines. I think it could appeal more to “big picture” thinkers or to people who want to scan or skim through a wide range of data at once. I also think that the interface is useful for people who literally want to browse without laser-focus and see what’s out there.

I don’t know if Alltop.com is the ultimate expression of this kind of searching and researching tool, but I definitely think it has its place. I can’t say that I use it daily, not like I use Google Reader, but it’s a tool that I’ll reach out to in certain conditions.

Ultimately you have to find the tools that work best for you and I can’t claim that Alltop will work for everyone in every situation. However, if your information needs are similar to what I’ve described above, I recommend giving Alltop a try.

Alternately, if you’ve found a better research tool along these lines, why not share your thoughts in the comments below? If you’ve discovered some deficiencies in Alltop or in my line of thinking, I’d really appreciate it if you described that as well in the comments section. Thanks!

Other reading:

Alltop Launches Version Two – Chris Brogan

How Alltop Powers Bloggers – Chris Brogan

Alltop is the top – Regular Geek

Mainstream Web Watch: Why Alltop Rocks – ReadWriteWeb

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• I went willingly… to Alltop
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