Summify pivots into Social News Reader

In March Techvibes covered Bootup Labs incubated Summify and their javascript technology that gave site visitors a quick contextual summary of outgoing links on their website.

Techvibes.com test drove the product for a short time but found it didn't improve our metrics as hoped (time spent on the site or bounce rate) and didn't do much for the user experience either.

Fast forward five months and Summify's founders - a team of talented hackers from Romania - have pivoted. Big time.

And they explained it on their blog yesterday.

Summify is now a Social News Reader and they explained the move on their blog yesterday.

People are increasingly getting their news from the social networks they’re part of (Twitter, Facebook, etc.), but this is rapidly getting overwhelming. If you’re connected with a few hundred people and companies, it’s hard to stay on top of the news they share. There’s currently no way to get the important stuff without going through all your news.

Summify gives you a river of news in a way that you can consume it in minutes, rather than hours. The important stuff bubbles up at the top so, however much time you have at your disposal, you always know you’re reading the important stuff first. 

 It’s a HTML5 web app (only modern browsers supported, sorry!). It aggregates all your incoming news from your Twitter and Google Reader account (Facebook and Google Buzz support on the way!). It then curates your news feed by using the social reactions gathered from your networks. The important news makes it to the Top News section. There’s also a Recent News section that allows you to see everything in chronological order. 

While still in private beta, Summify has been kind enough to set us up with 20 invites so that our readers can try it out and provide some feedback. You can get started with the new Summify here.