The Filter: Team Blog

After a hugely successful Digital Mission to SXSW Interactive in March, The Filter is getting ready to head stateside once again. This time we’ll be flying the British digital flag in the Big Apple. Selected by an advisory board made up of top UK digital entrepreneurs, VCs, journalists, UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) and regional reps, The Filter are one of twenty innovative digital startups chosen for the prestigious US trade tour.

It’s going to be a great few days during November and we can’t wait to be involved in the New York digital scene. We’ll have a packed itinerary organised by Chinwag and UKTI, with loads of high-profile networking events, master-classes and meetings with leading VCs and US companies. We’re also hoping to swing by the exciting Web 2.0 Expo, which is being held in New York at the same time as our visit.

I am sure we’ll be tweeting from the event, but, if you’re keen to find out more about what we’ll be getting up to during our stay and the other digital companies joining us, check out Chinwag’s Digital Mission page.

It’s been a crazy start to the autumn for The Filter team. We have kicked off a number of exciting new projects with existing customers and have some new partnerships in the pipeline – some of which we can talk about and others we can’t (yet). 

The most recent company to sign up for The Filter’s recommendation & relevance service is Evolver.net – a very exciting start up that has developed a social network for conscious collaboration. We are of course delighted that the team at Evolver has selected The Filter to power it’s article-to-article recommendations. 

Here’s some info about what we’re doing with Evolver: we’re employing our sophisticated & adaptable consumer evidence system to gain a deep understanding of how Evolver users are engaging with world-changing content, covering everything from sustainability movements to new meditation techniques. Whilst collecting valuable real-time data about Evolver.net users, our world leading recommendation and relevance system is optimizing the social platform’s content offering, providing  an easy way for individuals, communities and organisations to discover more about the issues that really matter to them. 

Ken Jordan, Co-founder of Evolver.net has been highly supportive of using The Filter: 

“The intention behind the Evolver.net social network is to connect people who want to make change in the world to the ideas and information most relevant to them. We’re using The Filter’s recommendation service as a smart way to link our members to the content they really care about, as well as one another.” 

Delivering the most relevant content recommendations, we’re sure that Evolver will see measurable increases in engagement during the coming months and we’ll look forward to sharing the results with you very soon.

We’re very excited to hear today that our new iPhone application BandStalker is now available to download in the Apple App Store. BandStalker gives you instant access to the latest news, information, concerts and videos of your favourite bands and artists, on the go, as it happens. 

You can download the application from the store right now or read more about the application’s lovely shiny features here

We’ve just slapped up a bit of a refresh to TheFilter.com, and we’d like to run you through why we’ve decided to do this.

When we launched last year, our aim was to be the home of recommendations on the web - so we recommended music and movies to you on your homepage. However, the world/Internet is moving on and there’s lots more content out there than just albums and movies. So, we’ve tweaked our goalposts a bit and now want to filter the whole of the web for you - to find the entertainment (and relevant bits of information related to the entertainment) that you’ll love.

The very first iteration of this process is up now on The Filter. If you log-in you’ll see a feed which contains news stories, reviews and recommendations - all based on your tastes (the items in your taste cloud).

In the coming months we’ll be adding lots and lots of great content to this feed, such as Tweets from your favourite artists/movie stars, the best videos, gig recommendations, concerts from photos - you name it, it will go into your feed. We’ll also be tidying up the design considerably (there’s even rumours that those floor tiles will go soon!)

Anyway, that’s the premise behind the updates to the site today. Please let us know any feedback you may have in the comments.

Hope you enjoy discovering new content in your feed.

Our CEO (or “boss” as the BBC likes to call him) is still at SXSW, and tweeting every five seconds about it. Sample tweets: “Shall I go to the Google or Facebook party tonight?”. He’s even got into the habit of saying “Goodnight” on Twitter, which I think is the invisible line between being a normal person and being a complete geek. He’s crossed it, and there’s no coming back. He’ll probably come back to the office with about ten sickening new buzz words and make us work while perched on space hoppers with a GPS chip built into them.

Despite going to Facebook parties (he thought the band were brilliant, while I noticed that Mike Butcher from Techcrunch thought they were awful) it does appear that he has been doing some work - having a nice chat with the BBC.

Hopefully the video won’t shatter your illusion of SXSW like it did mine, you can take a look here. I expected the whole thing to be super-cool and trendy, with drunk rock stars walking around, but it looks like they are conducting the interview in a school library.

You can read the full BBC article here, featuring David and a host of other British start-ups that joined forces to take on SXSW with the folks at Digital Mission.

We’ve hit the Beeb today, Darren Waters has caught up with our Texas-bound CEO about The Filter’s digital mission at SXSW. We mentioned a while back that we’ve been selected from more than 100 technology enterprises to represent the best of the UK startup community at the interactive conference. Well, it finally starts tomorrow and we’re sure our CEO will be knocking back a few double espressos in preparation for really long days showcasing what The Filter can do. Anyway here’s the BBC blurb on The Filter’s interactive trip:

One of the British firms travelling as part of the Digital Mission is TheFilter.com,  a recommendation engine and website whose backers include musician Peter Gabriel.

David Maher-Roberts, Chief Executive of TheFilter, said small companies were feeling the downturn.

He said “We had to work harder to raise the round of investment we closed last month than it would have been a year ago. And we have to be incredibly careful on costs.”

Mr Maher-Roberts said being part of the Digital Mission would help raise his company’s profile out in the US.

“When you deal with digital entertainment companies in the US they are fairly West Coast-centric and if you are not there you have to stand out from the crowd if they are going to take any notice of you whatsoever.”

The Filter has two sides to its business - a recommendation engine which it licenses to partners, such as Nokia, and a destination website that it uses to showcase its technology and acts as a playground for new features.

“A lot of people are doing music recommendations, it’s a very busy space. A lot fewer doing video and very,very few are doing recommendations across any form of digital entertainment - it’s what makes us unique.”

More than 20 million people use The Filter’s technology every month.

“I’ve seen an absolute change in the last six months when talking to executives in e-commerce or media. They used to think recommendation engines were a nice thing to have for users, now they see it as absolutely essential.”

TheFilter is optimistic about the future, despite the recession.

“Our priorities are to further increase our number of partnerships - we currently have really partners in music and video

“Our main priority is that we will break even in the next six to 12 months so we can put our future in our own hands.”

Don’t forget, if you want to see what The Filter’s doing in Austin, you can follow twitter updates by our CEO at @thefilter or @davidpmr

We’ve news just in, which is helping us get over the fact that Coldplay did not (grr, they were robbed) win Mastercard British Album of the Year at the Brit Awards last night.  Anyway, I won’t bore you with how disappointed I am and get to the point, we’ve formally closed an investment round, which means The Filter’s $1.2 million in the bank.

As well as securing the continued support of current investors Peter Gabriel and Eden Ventures, the business has managed to attract new angel investors, such as Roderick Banner, Chairman of WPP-owned agency, Banner Corp, former CEO of LoudEye Michael Brochu (through EMM Investments) as well as John Taysom, founder of  We7.com and a former investor in, among others, Yahoo and Infoseek.

Our CEO David Maher Roberts comments,

“We are delighted to have closed this investment round - especially as it comes off the back of a successful 2008 for The Filter which saw the launch of TheFilter.com as well as growing revenues from existing and new licensing partnerships. We plan to use the funds to further develop our content filtering service for consumers and to increase the number of businesses that will benefit from our services and expertise in Europe and the US. We have had decent success with partnerships both sides of the Atlantic because our technology works for all media types, delivers measurable results, and is dead easy to implement. The team and I are proud of what has been achieved to date and we are especially proud of having attracted new investors whilst enjoying the continued support of long term investors Peter Gabriel and Eden Ventures. We are in a good position to have a big 2009.”

Glitz, red carpet, golden statuettes (if they haven’t all been stolen), long speeches and a lot of tears, oh yes, The Oscars are just around the corner and already everyone is speculating as to who the winners and losers will be on Hollywood’s biggest night of the year.

Could there be a few surprises? Maybe Fincher’s thought-provoking Curious Case of Benjamin Button will end up whipping the bookmaker’s favourite Slumdog Millionaire? Who’ll blubber the most? oh god, please not another wimpering Winslet performance. Anyway as we’re getting into an Oscar frenzy we thought we’d give you The Filter’s top tips for the 81st Annual Academy Awards:

Best Picture

Slumdog Millionaire

Certainly an enjoyable cinema treat, low budget and beautifully shot, this inspirational drama unfolds the story of a poor orphans epic journey to winning 29 million rupee.  This stunning modern day Indian fairytale will inevitably strike gold.

Best Actor

Mickey Rourke

Down and out star Mickey Rourke who almost became invisible on the Hollywood circuit appears to be a force to be reckoned  with,  given his grand comeback as Randy “The Ram” Robinson. An Oscar win for Mickey would definitely mirror the glorious story of The Wrestler.

Best Actress

Kate Winslet

2009 appears to be the year that Kate Winslet will finally get her hands on the best actress award for her outstanding emotional performance in the post Holocaust drama, The Reader.

Supporting Actor

Heath Ledger

It would be brilliant to see Heath Ledger, who tragically died last year to be awarded a golden trophy given that only one actor has managed to achieve this feat from the grave. His psychotic and thoroughly disturbing role as the iconic Joker in The Dark Knight without a doubt deserves recognition from the movie community.

Supporting Actress

Taraji P Henson

Taraji should get acknowledgement for her powerful acting as Queenie in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which tells the haunting story of a man who ages backwards.

Also we’ve just time to wish good luck to our supporter Peter Gabriel, who is nominated for the best original song “Down to Earth,” which appeared on the movie WALL-E. We’ve crossed our fingers and toes.

Okay, Okay, Okay. Snow has hit the British Isles and the whole country has gone hysterical, simply unable to cope with a weather condition that isn’t rain, wind or the dreaded rain+wind combo fusion. The Filter office is not excluded in the mass-hysteria, and I’m sorry to have to report that basically all of the development team - including the CEO have run home - terrified that the snow will render the roads useless and that they’ll have to spend the night digging in the ground for nutritious fresh plant shoots.

I’d like to add that the snow hasn’t really started to settle properly here in Bath - I even went outside to try and take a picture of the office building to try and prove that it was snowing - but to be honest you couldn’t actually see any snow when I took the picture. So, I had to steal a picture from The Gruaniad.

Here’s a playlist/random-bunch-of-songs-about-snow that I threw together to celebrate the fact that it isn’t rainy or windy.

The Twilight Sad - Cold Days From The Birdhouse
Mirah - Cold Cold Water
Elbow - Snowball
Animal Collective - Winters Love
Aloha - Ice Storming
Damien Rice - Cold Water
The Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal
Shearwater - The Snow Leopard
Scott Walker - White Winter Nights
Death Cab For Cutie - The Ice Is Getting Thinner

According to Mathematician’s, today is the most depressing day of the year. It’s Monday. You’ve broken all of your new years resolutions. It’s a billion years from Pay Day. U2 are about to release a new album.

The press have dubbed it Blue Monday, which I would find amusing/clever were it not for my hugely depressed state.

So, firstly, congratulations to all of our readers to making it through to 11 AM on the most depressing day of the year without breaking open ten packets of paracetamol with shaking hands.

I was going to post a list of happy, joyous songs to help us break out of our collective lull - but to be honest, I’m too depressed. What does sunshine look like? What do puppies smell like? When will Bono stop singing?

Being a bit of a math’s wizard myself, I formulated an equation to dive through the entire catalogue of recorded music since 1956 to pick out the ten most depressing songs ever written, by anyone, ever.

Here’s the results:

1. Morrissey - Every Day Is Like Sunday
2. Morrissey - I Know Very Well How I Got My Name
3. Morrissey - Boxers
4. Morrissey - Dial A Cliche
5. Morrissey - We’ll Let You Know
6. Morrissey - I’ve Changed My Plea To Guilty
7. Morrissey - Dear God Please Help Me
8. Morrissey - Angel, Angel, Down We Go Together
9. Morrissey - I Am Hated For Loving
10. Morrissey - Seasick, Yet Still Docked.

My coffee’s also gone cold.