matchmine adds OpenID and portability to MatchKey

matchmine (DEMOfall 07) of Needham, MA, a media discovery network, Monday announced three major enhancements to improve users' experience and support open source and portability.

Users can now access their matchmine MatchKey, a colorful sphere that represents a person's interests, with the single-sign-on OpenID, import user preference information from Web sites, and export their MatchKey user preference information. Users can share their MatchKey with any Web site in matchmine's "media discovery network." Each time someone uses their MatchKey, it "learns" preferences and retrieves information that matches preferences.

"On the inbound side, we're letting users feed their MatchKey with existing preferences from other sites," said J. Trent Adams, founder and chief innovator of matchmine. "We've also opened the door outbound,allowing users to export the preference model of their media interests we create for them."

The new MatchKey Feeder lets users import their preference information directly into their MatchKey from Web sites outside the matchmine Media Discovery Network, including Netflix, Last.fm, Pandora, YouTube, and Bloglines. For users, this provides off-network access to their personal preference information.The function allows companies in matchmine's network, to leverage their users' preferences beyond those gathered within the matchmine MediaDiscovery Network.

With MatchKey Streamer, users export or stream, the preference data in their MatchKey and share it with whomever they choose. Streams are currently available in three XML formats: raw MatchKey, MatchKey vectors, and APML. Each stream allows the user the choice of making it public or private. matchmine expects to add other streaming options eventually including a simple tag cloud format and a context-rich semantic representation.

"We've laid the groundwork upon which we can continue rolling out additional feeder sources and streaming formats, and supporting additional existing and emerging open standards, " Adams said.