notes.husk.org. scribblings by Paul Mison.

Aggregation: definitions

In the wake of Zeldman’s post, two definitions:

• Shallow Aggregation: what I do. A single home page that pulls in concept from other sites, but where the links leave my site to go instead to the place the content is hosted.
• Deep Aggregation; what Tom Insam does. An entire site fed on and republishing content from other sites, in so far as possible. Allows a consistent look.

• Are the joins better when they’re more obvious (shallow) or better hidden and (arguably) less predictable?
• Is there a market for software for either sort of aggregation? (MT provide “Action Streams”, which are shallow. There’s experimental Django code for deep aggregation.)
• Is there a future for either kind, given Friendfeed et al? 
• Given the questions above, is it even worth defining the above?
• Is aggregation the right word? Republishing? Personal mirroring?