NewsPond is the latest in another Techmeme like aggregator. My first impression – very good. Mashable has a glowing review and so does Mike Arrington. (Update from Mike in comments below – Mike actually calls Newspond out) Gabe Rivera who has been recently celebrated as the best boostrapped startup, might want to rethink funding to expand his capability.
I have always been a fanboy of Gabe and Techmeme because of how valuable their service has become to my infoconsumption. The only issue that I have with Newspond is blogger inclusion. I get the impression from Newspond that it’s only branded publishers. I don’t see Dave Winer or Robert Scoble on Newspond. Maybe this is by design or maybe not. Techmeme is superior on including individual bloggers and mainstream news outlets.
I like how Techmeme mixes up professional bloggers or branded publisher bloggers with individual bloggers.
For now I like Newspond. I will use it everyday for the next month and see how they do.
I pinged Ian at Newspond to chat on a podcast with me on his new service. I hope to chat with him. I like how they talk about their approach to machine based ranking or AI brain.
Update: Mike Arrington points out in the comments below that I might have taken his post as positive. After re-reading Mike’s post it’s apparent that Mike call Newspond out for their ‘over the top’ positioning. I think that Mike is justified to point out the bravado. In the old days hyped up statements were needed to get attention from mainstream media but with today’s era of journalist bloggers hyping can kill you.
Silicon Valley Technology Blog - John Furrier 
Hey John, Thanks for the advice! Perhaps the best way to relate my thoughts on this matter is in song. And here it is:
Gabe: you won’t lose me. Techmeme is the gold standard in blog aggregation.
John, you may want to give my post a second read.
Thanks Mike I just posted an update. After re-reading your post it’s apparent that you’re calling Newspond out for their ‘over the top’ positioning. I thought you were being tongue in cheek but I think that you’re justified to point out the bravado risk. In the old days hyped up statements were needed to get attention from mainstream media but with today’s era of journalist bloggers hyping can kill you.
It looks slick enough, and their claims are outrageous enough that they’ll probably get some attention for a couple of days, but I doubt this will knock Techmeme off its throne.
I think Techmeme’s interface is far superior..After using Newspond for a week I have Techmeme on top. Newpond does a bad job of clustering related stories… Newsponds sources also are the same.