Cyberjournalist has more from the developing "news tailored to your needs" field. First up is a new personalised information site, Spotback, which learns readers' newsreading preferences and builds a homepage, Tivo-style, according to your habits. Readers can nudge Spotback in the right direction with nifty sliding scales to rank articles. The page responds nicely, with sections sliding down or up according to your preferences. It's good to see a site respond like this, rather than the usual reload: It gives Spotback a "next generation" feel.

More established player Topix.net has launched a Publisher Platform which allows publishers of all sizes to have their content hosted by the site. Topix filters content by topic (region, lifestyle, sport and so on - there are 360,000 of them) and picks advertising to support the features chosen. Pick France, for example, and you'll get a page of links to French news from various sources, plus forums and two columns of ads and sponsored links. The new platform keeps readers on Topix's site, but will retain the publisher's branding.

Topix claims that its readers will be incremental to the publisher's readers, and branding will allow newspapers to create a bigger brand on the web. Advertising revenue will be shared.

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