What is The Daily You™?

If you're looking for The Daily You™ feedback form, click here.

For a demonstration of The Daily You™, click here.

The Daily You™ is our proprietary system that allows us to provide local news and information of both broad and narrow interest while keeping the sea of information from drowning you. For instance, what's happening at your child's elementary school is important to you, and it's a nice convenience to get that info the same place you get your Cowboys score. But that doesn't mean you want to fish through information on schools all over the district, much less the entire DFW area. And just because you're into the local singer-songwriter playing his first show at a coffeeshop, it doesn't mean you're interested in the big rock show at the AAC. (Nor does it necessarily mean you're not interested in the rock show.)

We lovingly hand-tag every story and event -- as well as data objects like band or organization pages -- on our site using a structured system we developed especially to categorize local content. You'll see those tags on every story and event, and can even use them as an alternate way to navigate the site.

If you are a registered user, every time you click on a page in the site that is tagged, we add emphasis to other items with similar tags -- the more specific the category, the higher the score. Then, based on that score -- and how it compares to the reading habits of other users on the site, as well as how much content you could have checked out in that category -- we deliver customized news and information. Anywhere on the site that you see The Daily You™, it means that we're working to make sure you can easily find the things that most interest you, without having to wade through a lot of irrelevant information. 

And soon, we'll start using The Daily You™ to deliver the advertising you see on the site, meaning that we'll try not to bother you with a bunch of ads for things that you aren't interested in. That also means that our advertisers will get a bigger bang for their buck, not wasting their money waving for attention from people who haven't demonstrated an interest in their products. We also will use geography in that calculation so that someone living in West Fort Worth won't be bothered with an ad for a dry cleaner in East Dallas.

We realize that this is a pretty new concept for a lot of people and we get a lot of questions about it. Some of the most common ones are answered below. If you have others, please let us know. 

Haven't I heard about this sort of customization before?

Most likely. Anyone who has shopped on Amazon.com or Netflix, for instance, is probably familiar with recommendation systems. Of course Amazon primarily learns something when you make a purchase. Our system gets better at delivering you local information every time you click a link. There are many companies providing news customization for national news, but we don't know of anyone else providing this effortless type of custom content at the local and neighborhood level.

But I don't want you tracking what I read!

We won't, unless you register for a user account. You can access all content on our site without registering. And even with a user account (required for some site functions like comments and custom playlists), you can opt out of The Daily You™. But, we really encourage you to give us a chance. We're only going to use this data for good (keep reading), and if you use The Daily You™, your experience on the site will be MUCH cooler.

Well, what are you going to do with my data?

We're going to use the tags on the information you view on the site to feed you back customized content and advertising. That's all we'll do with your individual information. We will publish aggregated statistics about our users, same as any other media outlet. So, we might say that 78% of our users are really interested in the Cowboys, but we'd never say that "John Smith loves the Cowboys." Your individual information is private. 

You're not going to sell my personal information to advertisers?

No. Never. Ever. Not for a gazillion bazillion dollars. Not if we had guns to our heads. Not if someone offers us magic beans. Not for all the tea in China. No.

Again, no. 

What we will do is deliver you customized advertising. So, if your site usage indicates an interest in opera, you'll be more likely to see ads for opera tickets. If someone wants to reach you based on your interests, they always have to come through us. And they will never know who you are. (Although they could, at most, know that you are a Pegasus user if you respond directly to their offer.)

Can other users see what I've read?

No. That information is not displayed on your user profile. 

Is this spyware?

No. We don't install any software on your computer. We do use cookies to remember you so you don't have to log in every time you come back to the site. However, we can't track any activity unless you are on Pegasus News and logged in to your user account. 

Are you following me all over the web?

No. We can't track anything you click on that isn't on our site. 

So will I start seeing only things about narrow topics of interest?

No. The Daily You™ only controls what you see in certain boxes on the site. There are some stories that are of broad enough interest that you'll always see them. And even site hubs with The Daily You™ always have lists of and links to other related items so that you can keep broadening your local interests.

Are there other features?

Yes! There is a print edition which will send a printer-friendly version of The Daily You™ to your desktop printer in two simple clicks. You can also see a longer list of your Daily You™stories, and even look at what was in your Daily You™ on past dates. (Our developers are still working on the version that shows future dates.) Very soon, we'll start delivering a list of the most relevant upcoming events.

Should I be afraid to click on items that I'm not super-interested in? Will those screw up my Daily You™ profile?

No worries there. Click on whatever tickles your fancy at the moment. Because The Daily You™ is constantly learning and scoring, you'll have to look at a good number of items in a given topic area before we start feeding it back to you. Don't be afraid to check out that listing for the Backstreet Boys Reunion tour for your cousin. We'll still keep delivering what you're really interested in.

What if other people use my computer?

If someone else uses the site while logged into your account with The Daily You™ enabled, it could affect your profile. However, since Pegasus News accounts are free, anyone who uses your computer can get their own account. And don't worry if your spouse uses the account for an afternoon -- If you use the site regularly at all, our system will see a small number of clicks on irrelevant tags as an anomaly.

But what if someone in my household does use my computer while logged into my account. Will I be embarrassed by what's in my Daily You™?

Not based on the tags themselves. You'll see the tags as you click around the site. They cover things like musical genres, areas of town, sports, schools, arts and the like. None of our tags are embarrassing in and of themselves. Now if your ex-girlfriend loves the symphony and you tell your wife you hated every minute of it and she then sees that your Daily You™ indicates you read about nothing but classical music, we can't help you. Your problems are beyond us.

I have a pet monkey and it spent the entire week I was on vacation clicking all over things on Pegasus News that I don't care about. Can I reset my profile?

In that case, the easiest thing to do is to register for a new user account. However, if it is really important to you that you keep the rest of the account intact, you can contact us and we'll reset your profile.

Can I edit my profile? Can I speed things up by explicitly telling you what I'm into?

For now, no. Here's why: First of all, not everyone describes everything the same way. And without some sort of structure, we can't figure out what you're reading about. So, while we try to make our tags simple and understandable, we know exactly what we mean by them. More importantly, we know how the scoring works -- and it's complicated. A user might interpret that structure differently, and pick tags that don't mean to her what they mean to us. And because interest isn't binary -- there are many things you like, but you may like some more than others -- we haven't been able to come up with a method for you to scale your likes and dislikes that works better than following actual clicks.

Second, and more importantly, actions speak louder than words. We've found, and seen evidence in research done by others, that we humans don't always see ourselves with 20/20 vision. In filling out a survey, you might say you love ballet and champagne -- and you might believe that. But you're then just as likely to go catch a punk band and drink cheap beer. The Daily You™'s results are better when they aren't filtered with these kind of perceptions. We're not saying that we're never going to let users edit Daily You™ profiles. But we won't anytime soon.

What if I don't like the results I'm getting from The Daily You™?

First, be patient. Keep reading things on the site, and the more data we get -- especially from you, but also from others -- the smarter The Daily You™ will get. If that doesn't work after a while, please let us know. We'll work with you to try to understand the problem, and hopefully to improve The Daily You™.

Also, bear in mind that your Daily You™ is constrained by what's in the recent news. If you do nothing and care about nothing but chess and go for a week without seeing a chess story in your Daily You, it's likely because there were no chess stories. One solution is to share your expertise with the community by contributing chess stories or video. But in general, expect The Daily You™to be more relevant than the broader news from The Daily Paper, TV news or our undifferentiated pages -- and on its best days, it may fit you like a glove.

What if I don't like the results because I can't find the things I'm most interested in on the site?

We're a local site, first and foremost. So if you're looking for nonlocal information in The Daily You™, you're out of luck. You want to read about presidential politics? Unless Air Force One landed at Love Field this morning, you'll need to go elsewhere. We are all about local.

But if you can't find the local things you're interested in, let us know. We'll work with you to find a way to get that information into our coverage.

I've registered, but I'm still not seeing The Daily You™.

First, make sure you are logged in. Then check your profile to make sure you opted in to receive The Daily You™. Also, be aware that we won't start showing you The Daily You™ until you've read enough on the site for us to provide useful sorting. That's roughly 30 tagged items, and it may take up to 24 hours for our system to register that information. Although we start delivering after 30 items, that's the bare minimum we're comfortable with, and your Daily You™will continue to learn and get more targeted the more that you read.

All that, and you still haven't answered my question!

Sorry 'bout that. Drop us a line and we'll answer it ASAP, and add it to this FAQ if we think it's a question others will have too.

For a demonstration of The Daily You™, click here.