Pearltrees introduction (Beta 0.6) Mapping the web – pearltrees. As I’m a visual kind of person, I like visual methods of mapping abstract information.
Which is pearltrees – part blog, part social media, part flow chart. It is made up of “nodes” (the pearls). Each node is fully customisable – descritpions, notes, custom icons, which are then anchored on a root node (the base of the tree).It sounds more complicated than it actually is, here is me prepping articles about the Rothschilds’ influence on UK politics for example: My pearltree showing my bookmarks for The Rothschilds influence on UK politics Mousing over a node will open up a mini view of the page linked to What's that "Bloody Milton" thingie....? Anyone can browse a pearltree, go on have a play – – however an account is needed to actually make one. It’s fully web 2.0, with feeds for twitter, facebook et al, and you can also check for similar content in other users pearl trees, meaning you will often find things that interest you that you may not have normally come across.
The Nitty Gritty. Pearltrees Raises $6.7M For Its “Collaborative Interest Graph” Pearltrees, a company offering a novel interface for sharing and finding content, has raised 5 million euros ($6.7 million US) in new funding.
The basic unit of the Pearltrees service is the pearl, which is basically a bookmark. Users can assemble these pearls into trees based around a topic. Meanwhile, Pearltrees is using that data to determine how different topics and bookmarks are related, and allows users to find new pearls (related to whatever topic they’re exploring) through its “related interests” button. Following the lead from Google’s PageRank and Facebook’s EdgeRank, Pearltrees has named its technology TreeRank. Pearltrees Brings Your Interest Graph' to the iPad. One of the more buzzword-y buzzwords in Silicon Valley right now is the "interest graph," which is supposed to connect people and the topics that they're interested in.
Lots of startups promise to tap into the interest graph, but Pearltrees CEO Patrice Lamothe says a new app from his startup is "maybe the first time you actually see an interest graph. " The new feature, which Lamothe variously describes as "visual discovery" (his pitch to the tech press) and "related interests" (what it's actually called in the app), is included in the just-launched iPad application from the previously Web-only company.
Related interests have also been added to the Pearltrees website, but Lamothe is clearly more excited by the iPad version—he warned that the Web experience probably isn't quite as good. That kind of self-deprecation from a startup CEO is a little strange, except that the Pearltrees iPad app is pretty impressive.