Frequently Asked Questions
What is topikality?
topikality is a new, more efficient way to research and stay up-to-date with important news and information. It learns what sort of articles you like, and delivers only those articles.
Watch the demo to see how you might use topikality…
How does topikality know what articles I like?
You teach it, by voting articles up and down. With each vote, topikality gets a little smarter. Its machine learning software uses seriously complex algorithms to analyse each article and see if it matches your preferences. After you’ve voted about 50 times, you’ll start to see a real difference in what it returns, and soon the list of articles you get in your email inbox each day will be right on the money.
How is topikality different from Google
Google finds pages that contain the specific phrase you search for. It doesn’t learn. topikality proactively keeps you updated on a topik — not based on a phrase, but based on what you like. Unlike Google, it learns what you like and delivers only those articles.
Isn’t it just a fancy Google Alert?
No. A Google Alerts is simply a notification that Google has found a page that contains a particular word or phrase. topikality is much more than that:
- It emails you a list of articles relevant to a topik — not just web pages containing a word or phrase.
- It learns which articles you like and which you don’t.
- You receive more of what you like, and less of what you don’t.
What if I forget my password?
Click the Lost Password link and enter your Username or Email address. We’ll email a link to your registered email address so you can reset your password.
What is ‘Remember me’?
If you check this box, you won’t have to enter your username and password every time you visit topikality. Your computer remembers your details and logs you in automatically each time you return. (Unless, of course, you delete cookies.)
What is Open ID?
OpenID is a service that minimises the number of logins you have to maintain. It allows you to set up a single login that you can use on multiple sites. This login is called an OpenID. Some 50,000 sites will let you register and log in using your OpenID. topikality is one of them. You can read more at OpenId here.
Can I retrieve my topik after clicking the delete button?
No, deleting a topik is permanent.
What is the orange RSS button?
RSS allows you to subscribe to a feed of all the articles in your topik. As new articles become available your RSS reader can display them for you to read. If you’re curious, you can read more on RSS here.
Where do the articles come from?
We scour the Internet for articles, paying particular attention to media outlets, blogs, university and government web sites. We also update the system with user-suggested sites (i.e. when someone — like yourself — clicks the ‘Suggest new site’ link to tell us about a worthwhile web site or blog).
The article posting date varies from what I see on topikality and the source website
We do our best to provide an accurate posting date. There is occasionally variance due to time zones and errors in the article feed.
Do you cover the whole Internet?
No. We aim to deliver quality information by avoiding all the rubbish on the Internet. We rely on the media outlets, blogs, governments and organisations. We also count on topikality users to let us know the websites, RSS feeds and blogs they like. You can use the ‘Suggest new web site’ feature to inform us of your favourites.
How do you decide what is an authoritative source of information?
We don’t. topikality was created to give you the power to choose what’s right for you. This includes deciding what articles you’re interested in and what information sources you like. Over time, we hope to improve the way we manage this — supplementing your own preferences with some additional inbuilt intelligence.
What are those small icons to the left of my articles for?
They are voting buttons. Click the up arrow icon to indicate you like the article and it’s relevant to your topik. Click the cross icon to indicate you don’t like the article and it’s not relevant to your topik. Simple. The more you do this, the better topikality will get at finding articles you like and filtering out those you don’t.
Do I have to use the arrow and cross voting buttons?
No. Use the voting buttons regularly when you want topikality to learn what articles you like and — more to the point – dislike. Ignore them when the articles are appropriate or you want a broad range of articles in your topik.
How many times do I have to use the arrow and cross voting buttons in order to get good results?
Simply put, you should use the voting buttons until you like all the articles you’re receiving. Roughly speaking, though, you should start to see improvements after about 50 clicks. If you want the topik to be more specific, simply continue voting.
What is the email link?
If you spot an article which friends or colleagues may find interesting, you can use this link to email it to them. The email will include your message and a link to the article.
What is the Twitter logo link?
When you want to share an article with others via Twitter, simply click the Twitter icon, and topikality will Tweet a link to it using your Twitter account. For more information on Tweeting from topikality, click here.
Are my preferences shared with anyone?
Absolutely not. We use your preferences only to ensure we send you only the most relevant articles and information. We will never sell or pass on any personal information to a third party without your express permission. We may display a list of advertisements, tailored to your topik of interest, to help pay for this service. For more information see the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions pages.