Wine Sediments

By Andrew Barrow
Spittoon

“Time waits for no man” — so the saying goes; and this is doubly true for the wonders of the Internet.

Development and innovation is in constant flow. Many have discovered the joys (and horrors) of email, RSS feeds and blogs. The little sphere that the wine world occupies is dramatic and dynamic as any, with sites such as WIne Sediments bringing the collective voice of the very best writers to a growing audience. As we storm forward, harnessing the power of blogging and feeds, the old formats of email newsletters and static websites fall and flounder.

The latest advancements have taken a lookie at the geeky digg.com - where users submit and vote for their favourite news stories and created wine specific variations. Both Netscape.com and Wine Life Today are still in beta testing mode, and changes are bound to happen, but I have been playing with both this week and am amazed at the power and interest such services provide.

Netscape, part of the AOL stable, has taken the technology aspect of digg and applied it to a host of topics, Travel/Food/Drink being just one of 30. Wine and food stories, web links, blog posts and news items are submitted and voted on by other users. You find a story you like and if of sufficient interest and popular enough, it will appear on the front page of the channel. Editors also promote good stories to the prominent positions. Discovery of quality news and info is guaranteed. For those who maintain their own blogs, substantial traffic can be sent over from a front-page-posted link.

The other service, again in beta, is specifically for wine. Wine Life Today works on the same principle — voting by users on the best, most informative stories. But it differs slightly in allowing blogs (via their RSS feeds) to be plugged right into the site. This enables the user to keep right-up-to-the-minute with wine bloggers both amateur and professional in addition to the latest news and commentary specifically covering the world of wine.

If the popularity of digg.com is a barometer, then these Social bookmarking services should prove hugely successful. Head on over, register and perhaps vote on this very news story.