I am doing a lot of reading on small business trends, including entrepreneurship, webpreneurship, small business technology and any other related to small business. In the process, I usually read articles and blog posts via Google News. I also read updates via RSS readers, Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop, and social bookmarking sites, such as BizSugar.
Despite those sites help me to escape from information overload while keep on following on the recent updates, I want something different; something other than headlines with a snippet of content below them (in Alltop, it’s only the titles that are visible.) I want something like, say, the online version of the New York Times, but from multiple news sites aggregated into a single place. It’s a more interesting read, and I can choose whatever news sources I want – in other words, I want personalised news delivered in a nice layout and such.
For some reasons, while looking for such aggregation tool, I stumble on a news update about the launch of Ongo.
What is Ongo?
Ongo is a personal news service backed by big news sites, The Washington Post, The New York Times and USA Today.
In essence, Ongo aggregates the news from the sources you select (there are currently 24 news sources as of today – big news site like Slate, The Associated Press, Financial Times, and such) and present them in news site layout, instead of (the rather boring) list of headlines plus news snippets. Plus, no ads on your aggregated news, so it’s noise-free.
Please watch this video to better understand what Ongo has got to offer:
How Ongo can help me?
One thing for sure, Ongo will help you reduce your information overload, while increasing your productivity.
Instead of visiting news sites one by one to read the latest news on small business (or any other news topics you are interested in,) you only need to access Ongo and read the news you actually really want to read, practically removing the need to skim through the content you don’t want to read. Neat.
The bad news is, Ongo is not a free service. To enjoy the features, you need to subscribe for a $6.99/month. No free, ad-supported, basic access like many subscription-based online content businesses offers.
Ongo is clearly targeting the paying niche, which enjoys news readability but don’t have the time to go through each of their favourite news sites over “frugal news reading” like many of us enjoy.
However, I think the price tag is reasonable, considering the ability to have news delivered to you in personalised manner, just the way you wanted.
Fortunately, you can access Ongo for free using its “one day free pass” – just entering your email address will grant you the access (but expect to receive offers and updates via your registered email address after the free day pass expires.)
Here’s probably a more interesting offer: “Celebrating” the launch, Ongo offer a one-month free trial period. You might want to use this option and be aware that this promotion will end in February 28, 2011.
Check out Ongo to learn more about the service and offers.