In previous posts, I have discussed both Flipboard and Zite (see: Blogs Becoming Increasingly Popular and Blending with Other Media; Zite Receives Cease-and-Desist Letter from Big Media). Both apps serve as examples of how the much-anticipated, personalized, e-newspaper will evolve. Note that CNN understands this strategic direction, as exemplified by its purchase of Zite (CNN Buys Zite and Pursues Big Screen, Small Screen Media Strategy. This evolutionary process goes on unabated. Twitter, a key player in the shift to e-newspapers has purchased startup Summify (see: The Startup That Could Turn Twitter Into Your Newspaper). Below is an excerpt from this article:
Twitter ]has] purchased the small Vancouver startup Summify..., but it could be a big step for the company's value as a news source. Summify created a service that would send you the "top news" from your social networks based on a proprietary algorithm that combined your interests with the most popular links among the people you follow on Twitter, say. It took some of the anxiety out of knowing that you could never possibly read every tweet from a large network. To appreciate why it matters that Twitter acquired Summify, you should try linking your Twitter account to Flipboard. Flipboard takes the links that my Twitter connections post and turns them into a magazine-style digest. Every morning, when I want to see what's happening, I don't fire up Twitter itself and cruise through hundreds of tweets. Instead, I fire up Flipboard and see right through the 140-character tweets to the vast sea of information on which they rest. This is an immensely useful way of dealing with large amounts of tweets. An even more impressive service is Nieman Journalism Lab's "Fuego," which ranks the links that people who are interested in the future of journalism are tweeting....If I think about what Twitter might do with Summify, it's pretty simple: Flipboard + Fuego. Basically, it's a personal "trending topics" generator. Take the hottest links from your feed drawing on Twitter's rich data, combine them with your personal preferences, and present them in some nice format. Perhaps this format could be a (very monetizable) daily newsletter filled with news and information that's relevant to you. If we were anachronistic, we might even call this bundle of content a "newspaper" that just happens to be curated by your Twitter network.
Both Fliboard and Zite create personalized e-newspapers that can be read on your smart phone or iPad. The former allows you to list your favorite social media or web sites with the app. The latter, with your permission, assesses your news, blog, and social media preferences by scanning your news consolidator preferences (e.g., Google Reader) and then provides a personalized e-newspaper on this basis. Summify continues this process by the use of a proprietary algorithm, culling and presenting news to on the basis of your Twitter personal preferences and trending topics. What all of these processes have in common is the opportunity to tap into your personal news and information preferences and then present the news that you prefer on your big or small screens (e.g., PC, tablet, or smart phone).
Zite has recently written a blog post about what goes on under the hood that you and your readers might find interesting (http://blog.zite.com/2012/01/zite-under-hood.htm). Much like Summify, we continue to hone your news reading experience based on the actions you take within Zite.
-Mark Johnson, CEO, Zite
Posted by: Mark Johnson | January 24, 2012 at 01:49 PM