Frequently Asked Questions

How does search work?

Use the search box to search for stories that contain words or phrases. As you type into the search box, common search terms will appear.

The most convenient way to execute a search is to long-press on any word. When the word is highlighted, you can search for the term immediately. You may also press on a second word. When you do, you can choose to search for stories that contain both the words (AND), or search for stories that include the first word but exclude the second word (NOT).

How do I create and manage favorite pages?

Any search can be saved as a favorite by pressing the ☆ at the top of the result page. The page added to your favorites is updated when a story matches your search query. Favorite searches may be removed by clearing the ☆.

Add favorite authors by toggling the ☆ to the left of the byline on the detail page. This adds a page to your favorites that contains the author's latest stories. Favorite authors may be removed by clearing the ☆.

Favorite pages are assigned a name automatically. You can change the name from the Manage favorites menu item. This screen also allows you to temporarily disable and delete favorite pages.

All Favorites is an automatically created page that shows the latest stories that match any of your saved favorites.

Where are my favorites stored? Can they be shared between devices?

Attribyte stores no personal information or favorites on its servers. All your favorites and settings are device-specific.

There's a particular author that I don't care for. Can I exclude those stories?

You can! When viewing the detail page for a story, select Exclude author from the menu. Stories written by excluded authors will not appear on any view. To remove exclusion, choose Excluded authors from the Settings menu item.

How are authors and stories selected?

To produce the stream of stories, Attribyte is "seeded" with a collection of sites and authors that generally cover a specific topic. Links from their articles are analyzed to automatically add additional sources. Occasionally, the collection is curated to remove off-topic, low-quality, or shuttered sites.

How are the top stories selected?

Top stories are discovered by an algorithm that analyzes the links found in recent content. The algorithm attempts to reveal the primary source, even if it is previously unknown to Attribyte. It may be any type of content including tweets, PDFs, press-releases, and SEC filings. Sometimes this makes it difficult to extract a meaningful title, author, and summary. Occasionally, a top story will consist of only a link.

Why do I sometimes see off-topic stories?

Stories are not curated, algorithmically or otherwise, to attempt to ensure they relate to a specific topic. Almost all authors and publications that focus on a specific topic like "technology" occasionally publish articles about recent events or tangentially related subjects.

How are the related stories selected?

If your device is in "portrait" mode, you can swipe left to see related articles, if any. In "landscape" mode, related stories appear in a column to the right of the article. Clicking on any related story takes you to the detail view for that story. Stories are related both by links and by content similarity.

What technology is behind Attribyte?

Attribyte has developed a cloud-based crawling framework that monitors feeds, websites, blogs, and social media. The real-time stream of information it provides flows into several components:

  • A search index designed to provide near-real-time, highly-relevant results.
  • A link and cluster analysis system that discovers the headlines that are important right now, whatever their source.
  • A ranking algorithm that rates the relative strength of connections between authors.

The goal is to discover and promote primary sources as well as providing the surrounding discussion as context.