.....so THAT is what Thoora does!

A lot of people have been asking me recently what Thoora is all about. I could go on about how we are algorithmically curating news through clustering and news science but better then me telling you I figured since it is Friday and all I would show you a recent presentation our CEO made at the AlwaysON Media NYC conference.

If you look closely you on the right side of the video you will see me all suited up.

In 2010 I hope you all become a F.O.S!

I had an interesting chat with Krista Neher the other day about some ideas I am playing around with around SXSWi and ways to build the brand and make a huge splash for Thoora.com (for those not paying attention, Thoora is what I am up to now and it is awesome so please check it out) and Krista asked me an great question.

"Are you looking for the attention to go to Thoora.com or to yourself?"

Krista is crazy smart, knows me well and is no nonsense so coming from her this is a perfectly reasonable question. My answer (obviously) was I want the attention to go to Thoora and I want it to live up to it's potential but at the same time I want people to know I helped get to where it is because I have an ego, I want to be the guy known for building brands and communities and also know from experience that girls are attracted to success.

So in an effort to build my own brand a little and get one step closer to fulfilling the dream I spelled out for Jewish Santa I have decided that all year (2010) I will be offering a cool item to people who self identify themselves as a "F.O.S." (Friend of Saul).

For the first part of the year any time I travel (starting with this week to San Francisco) I will have with me two "F.O.S." iPhone cases and to get one all you need to do is be one of the first two people who ask!

Pretty sweet deal huh?

I chose iPhone cases because they were not only cool but it was the one item I could think of that I could put my face on that P.Diddy has ever graced (we are now competing)

These are top notch cases and will protect your phones with the same style and class that I live my life but in the future I see these cases getting you the best tables at restaurants and invites to fly in private jets...but that will still take a little time.

So if you see me at a conference etc make sure you say hi and let me know if you are a Friend of Saul!

Abraham Lincoln, JKF and Lady Gaga walk into a bar...

People who know me, know I can be a little impulsive. I get my mind set on something and I tend to dive into whatever "that" is and try to wrap my head around till I feel as if I can hold my own in any conversation around whatever the topic is.

I know this is kinda weird but in some ways it best describes me and how my mind works.

The current thing I have been burning brain calories on is "news"....and when I say I have been thinking of news I mean how news works and not just how many ladies are becoming instant millionaires thanks in part to the media and Tiger Woods.

When I do obsess over these topics I usually find some silly fact in my head that may be true or not and begin my journey. So in the case of news I have always been fascinated by the fact that when Abraham Lincoln was killed it took almost a month for the news to reach most of the population.

Jumping forward but staying with the theme of Presidential tragedies, On November 22, 1963, a nation huddled around a single news source to learn from Walter Cronkite that at 1pm CST - 2pm EST President Kennedy passed away. At the time this was as close to real time news as possible.

Now, thanks to Michael Jackson and Tiger Woods we are learning that news is instantaneous and people are growning accustomed to receiving it right away. No longer is there a single trusted source or even a handful of trusted sources. Citizen journalism can be as accurate (and faster) as major news outlets and don't even get me started on the how TMZ has changed what a "Breaking Story" actually means.

An interesting example (at least I think so) is recently Lady Gaga preformed a concert in Toronto and had restricted media from this performance (she might be doing this for the whole tour but I only know about the Toronto show for sure) and while there was no formal media there was still more chatter then any show would receive a year or so ago because people were posting twitter reviews of each individual song as well as almost real time You Tube clips from the show. Now I realize that Lady Gaga is not hard core news but the fact that people not able to attend the show could still experience the show in close to real time is a powerful shift in the way news will be delivered in the not so distant future.

"Search Engines will become the Police Scanners of the news room" - Richard Budman

My friend Richard said this to me and it got me thinking that with all this content being added to the internet it is possible to (still using the Lady Gaga example here) review an event pretty authoritatively without actually attending but by using the tools that are currently available.

This is an exciting time and it will be interesting to see what people do with it.