Search terms as the basis for user-defined subscriptions

Last updated March 17, 2023

• #Idea

Authored By:: Rob Haisfield

Piggybacking on enabling composable queries to facilitate structure in hindsight, people will be able to define a search term that outlines their interests, such that they will be able to see any time new items are added to the query. From there, they could easily define whether they would like to receive notifications or have a more passive way for keeping up to date, similar to how Gmail will show you the number of unread items in a label.

For example, I might be interested in everything that Joel Chan writes. The query might look like:

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(all: (written-by:"Joel Chan"))

But maybe I’m only interested in his writing that pertains to synthesis. Then I might adjust my query:

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(all: (written-by:"Joel Chan")
     "synthesis")

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(all: (written-by: [Joel Chan]) 
	  (any: [synthesis]
		    [sensemaking]))

Maybe I want to follow everything written by a politician that pertains to my industry so I can stay up to date on potential regulations. Since we enable composable queries, the query could look as simple as this:

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(all: (property: "written-by" list-of-politicians)
      (any: "Web3"
            "crypto"
            "cryptocurrency"))

Compare this to the black box algorithms people traditionally see in social media newsfeeds. On Twitter, it is unclear what determines whether a tweet is displayed in your feed. It often features “suggestions” outside of who you follow based on its perception of your interests.

At its simplest, a newsfeed could be considered an aggregate of your saved queries. Since queries are composable, that might look like:

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(def "followed people"
  (any: "John Doe"
        "Jane Buck"))
(def "followed interests"
  (any: "Web3 thoughts from politicians"))
(def "blocked list"
  (all: "Joe Rogan"))
(def "newsfeed"
  (any: "followed people"
        "followed interests")
  (not: (any: "muted authors list"
              "muted topics list"
              "muted items list")))

# Interfaces for adjusting a query

The above queries may seem complicated for users to write - luckily, there are many possible intermediate interfaces.