How Refind Sneaked Into My Daily Routine

Many have tried, many have failed. But Refind, a relatively new tool, seems to have figured out, how to measure personal relevance.

At first, I was quite a skeptic about Refind. How should this platform — claiming it’s “worth my attention” — really know which stories are relevant to me?

For years, I got the most interesting articles on Facebook and Twitter. But who has time to go through all the updates and filter out the good stuff? And bookmarking services like Instapaper quickly became not more than digital scrapyards.

Now, I’ve been actively using Refind for several months, and they have provided me with more readworthy material than any other tool or platform before.

Of course, it’s pretty unclear how the algorithm of Refind works. The new start-up of Wuala founder and Swiss serial entrepreneur Dominik Grolimund digs between news, social networks, and search results. They call it relevance. To be fair: That’s kind of what’s missing in all the content noise on the internet. Refind does fill this gap successfully — at least in my perspective. It’s really worth my attention. Even though some articles don’t interest me at all, there’s always some nuggets in the mix I enjoy. The balance between compelling content and no so exciting stories is far better than on Facebook.

Now, the real question is: How did Refind become the go-to place for my reading? The answer is simple: It was their Google Chrome extension. Every time I open a new tab; Refind shows me some content I might be interested in. Instead of a blank page, I get a good overview of relevant stories, tailored to my curiosities. Honestly, sometimes I even forget why I opened a new tab in the first place. The extension is such an simple functionality, so I wonder why publishers in Switzerland are not using it for their content too.

That’s pretty much the secret. I don’t have to go to Refind; it comes to me whenever I use the browser. Combined with the quality content they present, it’s an almost perfect platform.