FanFeedr Founder Ty Ahmad-Taylor Knows How to Get You the Sports News You Need Now

These days, sports fans are inundated with sports content on the web, from ESPN.com and SI.com to blogs to local papers to Twitter to cheerleader photos to this very site's Yankees ramblings. Enter FanFeedr.com, a new website designed to help you find out the latest info about your favorite teams and players as they're happening. BroBible caught up with Bro Entrepreneur Ty Ahmad-Taylor, CEO and Founder of FanFeedr, last week to learn more about a site that could change the way you follow sports.

BROBIBLE: So how does FanFeedr help a fan sift through all the sports clutter that's out there on the web?

Ty Ahmad-Taylor: The pain point that we are trying to solve is allowing sports fans to connect with their teams and players as opposed to a single web site that may cover that team or player. There are four local papers in New York, and they all do a great job of covering the local teams, but there isn't one place for me to go to get all of my San Francisco 49ers news and information (that includes Yahoo, ESPN, FoxSports and others.)

How do you balance the feeds so that there's a good mix of breaking news, injury updates, and scores with more fun, entertaining stories?

Ahmad-Taylor: We don't attempt to inject an editorial point of view into the proceedings. Sports, like news, value timeliness above all else, so the judgments we are making are around which sites to include, but by presenting that material in reverse-chronological order, similar to Twitter, Facebook or any blog, we are presenting the latest information first. Additionally, users can filter what they see to just see blog posts, or photos, or the most commented items, and so forth.

What was the inspiration for the site? Di you have previous web/sports/entrepreneurship experience before launching FanFeedr?

Ahmad-Taylor: I have been working at the intersection of media and technology for 15 years, and during my time at Viacom, I was able to add in social features. This is a combination of the work I had done before in a new way for me: media (sports) + technology (real-time aggregation around teams and players) + social features (Facebook and Twitter integration.)

Which teams and players do you have on your fanfeed?

Ahmad-Taylor: Hah. I grew up in the Bay Area, so I am a bit of a homer for those teams despite their inability to, oh, I don't know, win, and there are some other teams and players I follow because I like what they do. Specifically, I follow:

• Bill Simmons, Sports Guy: hilarious, smart writing
• Chad Ford: good insight
• Chris Sheridan: good insight
• FC Barcelona: lovely to watch
• Golden State Warriors: like a bad relationship
• Marc Stein: breaks stuff before anyone else
• NY Knicks: I like D'Antoni
• Phoenix Suns: Great team aesthetically
• Rich Bucher: Bay Area and basketball: yes.
• SF 49ers: My hometown team since the Raiders moved to LA.
• Shaquille O'Neal: comedy.
• Tim Kawakami: Great writing, great insight.
• Wages of Wins: the best analytics for basketball, and written from a mathematical perspective.

  The A's were just too painful to watch this year.

  What news sources/blogs does FanFeedr pull from?

  Ahmad-Taylor: We pull material and, more importantly, drive traffic to local newspapers, national papers, smart sites like Yahoo Sports, ESPN, FoxSports, AOL FanHouse, Bleacher Report, SI, SB Nation, Yardbarker, MVN, school newspapers, school athletic departments, Scouts, Rivals, other blogs, the Associated Press and others.

  What do you look for in a site? How can a site be added to the mix?

  Ahmad-Taylor: We look for a particular ranking in Google as being a source of authority about a league, team or player, as well as "attention" from the perspective of comments and fan engagement. Any site can ask to be included via a link at the bottom of every page.

  How has Twitter changed the way sports is approached from a fan's point-of-view?

  Ahmad-Taylor: For the first time ever, we have insight into how an athlete thinks, what they think, and what they are doing off of the field/pitch/rink/arena, without mediation. What a powerful way to attach to fans and for fans to attach to the athletes. That having been said, players who go out partying and tweet about it should understand that fans aren't going to be understanding if they don't perform the next day. It is a two-way street, and it is mostly for the good of the sport and for fans.

  What's next for FanFeedr?

  Ahmad-Taylor: Well, we just launched Fantasy Sports lifestreaming, so that any user can publish their activity in their Yahoo Fantasy Leagues out to their circle of friends for cheers and jeers. We are also going to refine what we have on the service currently, so that it is both easier to use and reflects our customer needs rather than our beliefs about what is best for them. We have a cool new version of our highly-rated iPhone application that will push live scores to users, and we also have a solution for Blackberries in the works.

  Please pose your own question (can be about anything) and answer it yourself.

  Ahmad-Taylor: Q: What makes you guys different? More than aggregating sports, we are able to show what sports people are talking about right now using our "Hotness" metric. That is based on activity in Twitter, Facebook, on our site, and across thousands of blogs. We view that as the key differentiator, and with that data comes the value of capturing the current zeitgeist for sports. When Michael Crabtree signed with the 49ers, we knew that it would be a big deal and we were able to offer multiple viewpoints, and when Braylon Edwards was traded, the same thing happened, and so on. We would like to be the first place fans turn to when they want to know what is going on right now.

  Go to www.fanfeedr.com to get started now.