Aggregator

In this digital age, there are millions of websites and an unending flow of information on the internet. So an aggregator provides the services of collecting and compiling similar and important information on one website. Accordingly, there are various types of aggregators – news aggregators, service aggregators, video aggregators etc. Let us take a look.

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Aggregator

The term finds its origin in the word aggregate, meaning to combine, amalgamate or bundle up together. So an aggregator is a website or application that amalgamates homogeneous information or content from the internet. This makes it easier for the end user to navigate and find the required information from the web.

We are currently seeing a big boom in the world of digital marketing. All the big companies and brands of the world have their own website. They also use social media (Twitter, Instagram etc) for advertising and promotions. They have online brochures and inquiry forms. So a potential customer or internet user has to browse through many pages and information to fulfill his purpose. And this is where aggregators step in.

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Types of Aggregators

Let us take a brief look at some of the types of aggregators we usually find in the digital space. The classification is done on the basis of the information they collect.

1. Service Aggregators

Service aggregators provide homogeneous services on their website. They aggregate the service providers on their website and allow the customer/user to avail such services from their website or their application.

A classic example of service aggregators is Uber or Ola. These provide on-call taxi services to its customers. So through their website/app, they connect the riders and the taxi drivers.

2. Social Aggregators

These websites collect information and data from various social media websites like Twitter, Facebook etc. They then display this information as a live feed on their website, what we call a live event wall.

These walls help create brand awareness and can help the brand/company trend on such social media. So social aggregators like Twine Social are getting quite popular.

3. News Aggregators

As the name suggests, these websites compile information from newspapers, e-paper, blogs, videos etc. to one location for easy viewing. Visiting various websites and sources to view content can get time-consuming and tiring.

So news aggregators use RSS technology to extract and combine this information in one place. Some examples are Google News, Scribd, Huffington Post etc.

4. Video Aggregators

It is said that if one was to watch all the video content available on YouTube it would take 60,000 years! That is the sheer amount of video content available on the net. So video aggregators take similar videos (of same/similar subjects) and compile it on their website. One such example is the Daily Tube.

5. Shopping Aggregators

These are very helpful to customers shopping online. There are so many websites and options available for online shopping these days. These shopping aggregators help combine all these options and information and one place, so the user does not have to visit every single website. And such aggregators are not restricted to products only, they extend to services as well.

Solved Question for You

Q: What are some of the factors driving the demand for aggregators?

Ans: In today’s business world, an aggregator has a lot of importance and ever increasing demand. Let us see a few reasons for this,

• Increasing demand for more content from business
• Aggregators also provide good and professionally managed online creative content
• Helps the companies and brands reach a much wider audience
• Web aggregator will offer you rich media content, i.e. with quality images and videos. It helps differentiate your brand