Personalized News Site Findory Closing Down

Findory founder Greg Linden reports that he is stopping development of the personalized newpaper site. There are apparently enough resources for Findory to last till the end of 2007.

Findory is based on an Amazon.com-style recommendation engine that's applied to the news. What news items you click on affect future news items that are presented to you. With many other competitors in the same space, it was only a matter of time until one of them gave up. But, importantly, these Web 2.0 companies cost so little to run that they can be kept online almost indefinitely. The burn rate is low compared to those heyday dot-coms that went through tens of millions every month.

Previously, we've covered the issue of personalized content services that rely on automated algorithms to find interesting and relevant stories versus sites that use the principle of the wisdom of crowds . Although we're still early in the game, it's looking like the Diggs and Reddits of the world are prevailing against the Findorys. Web 2.0 sites don't die, they just fade away.