Random is a just-released free app that lets you discover interesting web content from unlimited sources. The app has been in development for a few years, and it was backed by by Skype co-founder, Janus Friis.
When you first start the app, you will see some subject headings. Click on one, and you'll be taken to a story that fits the subject. When you'e finished, the app will have more subjects to explore that are related to what you just clicked on.
"Discovering content online has become a stale experience that's primarily driven by typing and clicking and trying to keep up with our social feeds. We're being led down the same path to similar content repeatedly," said Marko Anderson, co-founder of Random. "We created Random to inspire people to be curious and to embrace serendipity.
The app certainly works. You wind up looking at things you might not see otherwise, and it is far less limiting than a news focused app or one of the online magazines.
The presentation is nice on the eyes. Screens fade from one to another, and there seems to be an almost endless array of colors for backgrounds. The app learns from your selections, and over time it 'self-tunes' to meet your interests, yet it still offers surprising content you would probably not find surfing in more traditional ways.
Random does not require a sign up or account, so everything stays anonymous. That's a real positive in my view. Nothing is saved, so once you are done looking at content it won't be back unless you decide to share it via text or email. You can also open any Random generated page in Safari.
Content can be essays, web pages, videos or photographs. In short, anything that is on the web.
In the early days of the internet, we were awash in information. As things got more organized, it was possible to live in a walled garden getting only the type of news or information we wanted. That's positive, but it also has negative aspects, because we can surround ourselves with information we already agree with, never having our ideas challenged. Of course, that's an extreme example, but apps like Random redress the balance and drop ideas into our lives that we may want to explore but would not otherwise see.
If I could change anything about the app, it would be that once I get to a subject, I like to explore that particular subject more deeply. I clicked on films, and got taken to a review of "Noah". I wanted to read more, but next click I was presented with lots of other cinema stories, but nothing about "Noah." Maybe that's by design, but I felt my exploration was thwarted by the 'rules'.
Give Random a try and see if it satisfies some of your intellectual curiosities. It's a very interesting idea, and nicely executed. Random is a universal app and requires iOS 6 or later.
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