A web service that uses an API or scrapping to pull in data from across the web.

A product that repackages and refocuses content ostensibly to improve user experience.

The folks who “borrow” and refactor your content and wrap Adsense around it.

Other Definitions

Wikipedia,

“Aggregators reduce the time and effort needed to regularly check websites for updates, creating a unique information space or ‘personal newspaper.’ Once subscribed to a feed, an aggregator is able to check for new content at user-determined intervals and retrieve the update. The content is sometimes described as being ‘pulled’ to the subscriber, as opposed to ‘pushed’ with email or IM. Unlike recipients of some ‘pushed’ information, the aggregator user can easily unsubscribe from a feed.”

Dictionary.com,

A program for watching for new content at user-specified RSS feeds.

Citations

How To Get On An Information Diet,

We spend a great deal of our time feeding into our fast food media diets. Luckily, you don’t need to waste precious space in your reader scratching this itch. When you are bored and just looking for something to read, take a look at some of the aggregator sites. PopURLs and Techmeme are fine examples. They take the popular news of the day and present them in an easy to follow form. That way, you can easily scan for what interests you without being bogged down by a feed filled with things that you aren’t.

How To Track A Disaster,

I would love to see an aggregator put together that could take disaster information and put it together in such a coherent fashion. In situations like this, information is a powerful tool.

(Image) (RSS)

If you enjoyed that why not find a job or read our guide to working in the 21st century. You can also join our Kiva team or hire me for your project.