So say you’re lucky enough to be attending the multimedia extravaganza that is SXSW in Austin right now. How do you begin to decide which of the 1,600 artists playing you should check out?
Well, if you use the Last.fm radio or scrobbling service (and you should), all you have to do is enter your username into the Band Aid app at the Last.fm SXSW group. Voila! You have a personalized set of recommendations for bands to see, based on your music listening habits.
The beautiful thing is that Last.fm is simply using my existing attention data from what I do naturally, listen to music, and providing me with extra utility with no additional effort on my part. It’s all seamless and automatic.
This is a simple but effective example of where the web is heading next. The next generation of web apps and services will use my attention data to deliver me with highly personalized content and services that improve my life: saving me time, bringing my attention to things I might be interested in, and putting me in touch with like-minded people. This probably won’t come about without some hiccups, and as always, the Onion are right on the edge of the satirical curve.
Back to extending utility of an existing service, Last.fm also recently launched build.last.fm, a gallery that pulls together a few of the best 3rd party apps created off the back of Last.fm’s open API. Definitely worth checking out.
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