Social web search engine Topsy is launching “social modules” today, giving publishers the ability to add customizable widgets displaying real-time content to their websites
Unlike other Twitter widgets that simply stream tweets in a timeline, Topsy’s new module let publishers display only the most relevant and brand-safe tweets. The content will be filtered – profanity-free and language-specific.
These modules can be easily set up and customized. And there will be premium features, enabling publishers with analytics and monetization options. The latter will include the insertion of turn-key ads, either provided by Topsy or from publishers’ existing a networks.
Topsy touts the increased engagement rates from publishers using social content powered by these modules. As the content is filtered based on relevancy, Topsy argues that it will provide readers with a better experience (leading in turn to more time spent on the site, hopefully).
As Vipul Ved Prakash, Topsy co-founder and CEO says, “The launch of Topsy Social Modules furthers our position as the fastest growing and leading supplier of relevant realtime search results from the social web.”
Indeed, Topsy points to the importance in not just the social web, but in how it dovetails with search. Rather than PageRank as being the sole marker of what’s important, links from Twitter are becoming an increasingly important signal of relevance. And as Topsy powers the largest searchable index of Twitter data in the world, it makes sense that publishers would want to turn to it to power widgets on their sites.
And while the world may not need another widget, this new feature from Topsy does seem to provide one with content that’s more useful – for both readers and publishers.
