(Image Source: Trapit)

BY DANNY MATTESON

You’re watching multisource tech news analysis from Newsy.

On a first name basis with Siri yet? Here comes Siri’s sister -- Trapit -- a so-called smart search engine which provides personalized results as it gets to know you. VentureBeat explains.

“The service offers web denizens a search-free, sit-back-and-relax way to stumble upon news articles, images, videos, recipes and other content on specific topics of interest.”

Silicon Republic says, the more you use Trapit, the better it understands you. You give the thumbs up or thumbs down to topics -- it narrows the search. Selecting your kind of news, blogs posts, or videos.
Quoting Trapit’s founders...

“The web is an echo chamber. You see the same articles and videos over and over again. Your individual preferences are overlooked by sites and services that take a one-size-fits-all approach, and they privilege the same handful of over-hyped articles and videos above all else. It’s much too hard to find the good stuff.”

And bloggers are lining up to give Trapit, the thumbs up. A writer for Paid Content says, while Trapit won’t replace Google Reader, it has its uses.

“The obvious question is how it works, and the answer is well. The first topic I tracked was “book publishing.” After a few minutes of personalization and thumbs-up and downing, I began seeing content much more geared to the things I write about...”

Search Engine Land likens Trapit less to Siri -- and more to a cross between StumbleUpon and Flipboard or Zite.

“One reason Siri is engaging is because it puts a voice interface on top of its sophisticated technology. That creates greater usability than in the absence of voice. And while Trapit may have the same intelligence under the hood, the exterior isn’t quite as sexy.”

Sexy or not, Trapit is coming out of beta to the public. Originally the result of the $200 million dollar CALO artificial intelligence project funded by the U.S. defense department, it is now a standalone company and is raising funding. Led by the same group which funded Facebook, Spotify and yes -- Siri too.