New micro-blogging site adds ‘credibility’ to the tweet model
Published on Thu, 23 Jul 2009 – 12:57:23 -0500 ESTNo Comment
DALLAS, Texas /Publishers Newswire/ — TipDrop is a place where people come to give and receive tips on just about anything. In fact, in its first five days the site has had 1,000,000 page views and more than 3,000 tips. Do you want tips on the best new digital camera to buy? Need tips on how to drive traffic to your Web site? Check out TipDrop.com.
“Many other micro blogging sites are flooded with useless information about what people had for breakfast or when they walked their dog,” Jonathan Leger, creator of TipDrop.com, says. “And, while that’s fine for friends and family, most people could care less.”
TipDrop takes a fresh approach to how information is shared. People who participate in TipDrop do not want to read inane bits of information; they want credible tips. TipDrop also serves as a platform for people to showcase their personal areas of expertise.
So, how does it work? People post tips that relate to specific topics found in tip sheets. For instance, a user might create a tip sheet with the title, “How to save money in a down economy” and another user might add a tip that advises, “Pack your lunch instead of eating out when at work.”
As more users add more tips, the tip sheets become valuable sources of information. And, to keep the best tips on top, users can vote. This raises/lowers the credibility of tips, tip sheets and the users who created them.
The whole system is built around what Leger refers to as a “credibility engine.” A user’s credibility level determines his or her tips and tip sheet credibility in ranking order. And, as users improve their credibility and ranking, their votes become more powerful.
“All of this works to keep the best on top and the spam and junk out of the system,” Leger adds.
Another advantage of TipDrop is that many other micro blogging sites limit characters. For instance, Twitter is limited to 140. TipDrop allows for 255 characters which is typically enough space for a quality tip.
“Ultimately, I took the best of what many social media and informational sites had to offer and created TipDrop.com to build valuable, topic-driven content,” Leger explains.
