About CloudGate.

CloudGate is a project started in August 2008 by 1080degrees designed to aggregate world news into a popularity map. Stories are automatically indexed into our database and, based on word frequency, mapped into a searchable tag cloud. News is only kept for 24 hours to keep stories relevant and our news sources are polled every 10 minutes to make sure the latest news is kept in our feed. Of course, you can view our most recent list of stories here.

RSS feeds are also available for every aspect of the site. You can obtain an RSS feed for the latest news here or you can get an RSS feed for any search term by searching for it, then clicking the RSS feed tag towards the top of the page. This will allow you to continue reading news relevant to you in your favorite RSS reader.

So, what's the usefulness of this tool? It's intended to provide an easy-to-understand map of what is popular in news as it becomes available. For example, "obama" immediately popped up as the most popular term in the news. By polling as many sources as possible, bias is balanced through many story summaries and links.

Why CloudGate?

Cloud Gate is a sculpture located in Millenium Park in Chicago. We borrowed the naming for a few reasons. For one, the method of generating a group of words with different sizes based on frequency is known as a "tag cloud." With more relevance to the actual sculpture, CloudGate acts as a portal into the news of the world, reflecting what other sources say regarding events. This is similar to how the sculpture reflects the Chicago skyline.

About 1080degrees.

1080degrees is an independent web development firm that specializes in simple and professional designs. If you're interested in employing us, send an email to david@1080degrees.net.