Aggregators and Types of Aggregators
Owing to the prevalence of digitalisation in the 21st century, many new concepts have flooded the business environment. Hundreds of websites publish an astonishing amount of information every day, which is shared and accessed from the internet. The Internet and its universality have made way for a unique concept called business aggregator.
By the term ‘aggregate’, we mean the act of amalgamating or combining something into one. Thus, an aggregator is someone who renders the service of collecting, compiling and providing similar as well as a relevant informant on a particular website. It can be an internet site or an app.
It is because of an aggregator that internet users can find the information they are looking for in a matter of seconds. Here, an aggregator works to find all the homogenous or similar content on a particular topic and then amalgamates it to provide a relevant result to the user.
Digital marketing is booming worldwide. Almost every company, brand, association, or initiative have their website to reach out to the customers and target audience. Advertising or promotion requirements are also carried on through the websites. So, if a customer is looking for any particular information, he might have to search for all the relevant pages to find an answer. Here an aggregator comes to the rescue. It narrows down the search process to help a user get access to what they are exactly looking for.
Now, depending on the requirements of a particular sector, the nature and task of compiling any information may vary. This is the reason why we have different types of aggregators functioning today.
Different Types of Aggregators
If you delve into the digital market, you will find the following kinds of aggregators assisting you in finding the relevant information:
Service Aggregators
Service aggregators are the ones which render homogenous or similar services. This also applies to the ones who operate through an application. Service aggregators reach out to businesses or entities on their website and enable customers to avail the facilities from their application/website.
Online cab applications can be considered as a case of such aggregators. These applications help connect the taxi drivers and riders.
News Aggregators
News aggregators can also be called feed aggregators in terms of computing. It could be a web application, software, or website which aggregates information from newspapers, blogs, news channels, e-papers, videos, sites, etc. It compiles all the relevant or similar information into one page so that the user can read it conveniently.
The absence of news aggregators could make the task of reading news quite troublesome. This is because an individual would then have to visit several websites to find the information he or she is looking for. This sort of aggregators usually makes use of the RSS (an acronym for RDF Site Summary) technology to combine and compile fresh information. Scribd, Huffington Post, Google News, etc. can be cited as examples of a news aggregator.
Social Media Aggregators
Social aggregators are those applications or websites which aggregate information from social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and so on. The collected data or information is then displayed live on their app or website. Social media aggregators offer a great way to create brand recognition, promote a new company or product, and make it a trend on the internet. Twine Social, Curator, etc. are well-known social aggregators.
Video Aggregators
YouTube can be identified as the most popular platform to access and watch videos. But the number of videos published on it every day is huge. This is where video aggregators play their role. They compile similar kinds of videos available on a platform to help users find what they are looking for. Daily Tube is another example of a video aggregator.
Online Shopping Aggregators
Many shopping websites and applications now operate on the internet, selling a wide range of products. The number of customers shopping online has also risen rapidly in recent times. Shopping aggregators come in to ensure an easy and convenient online shopping experience to the customers. It displays all the similar products in one place so that customers do not have to visit multiple websites.
FAQs on Aggregators
1. What are the Different Types of Aggregators?
Ans. Among the various kinds of aggregators, there are video aggregators, service aggregators, social media aggregators, news aggregators and online shopping aggregators. Although the area of operation of these aggregators varies, their task is almost the same. All of them work to collect, compile and display relevant information on a particular context.
2. What do you Mean by an Aggregator?
Ans. The term ‘aggregate’ means to combine, amalgamate, or bring something under one head. An aggregator is any such website or application which does the task of compiling similar information on the internet and providing it to the users. It simplifies the task of a user by helping him or she finds the required information. With the help of an aggregator website, he would no longer have to surf through every site to find the necessary data.
3. What is the Meaning of a News Aggregator?
Ans. News aggregators are those websites and applications which collect information from newspapers, news channels, e-papers, blogs, videos, pages, and so on. The collected information is then combined and displayed in one location. It is done with the help of RSS technology. Some examples of news aggregators are Scribd, Huffington, Google News, and so on.