Yahoo has unveiled an app that aims to change how we read news. The News Digest app unveiled by the company at CES 2014 in Las Vegas will deliver news twice a day and Yahoo promises that it will make reading fun.
The Yahoo News Digest will collect the most important news based on algorithm and editors' picks and present it to readers in digestible, condensed form called "atoms" through their smartphones. The app is essentially the reincarnation of Summly, which Yahoo acquired in March from its young creator Nick D'Aloisio for $30 million.
"It is increasingly becoming difficult to find exactly what we're looking for, and do so efficiently," said Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer at Yahoo Keynote Address at the CES 2014 in Las Vegas .
The News Digest, Mayer said, is the "perfect cure" to the problem of 'tl;dr' or 'too long, didn't read.' The app, she said, was the outcome of Yahoo's effort to do things differently and was developed by D'Aloisio.
"Remember waking up to the local morning news? Coming home to the evening news? Reading a newspaper from front to back page? These formats have been daily habits since the invention of the television and the printing press. We wanted Yahoo News Digest to revisit a content format that when read, led you to a sense of completion and conclusiveness, much like reading the newspaper did," Yahoo explained on its official blog.
"Our goal with the Yahoo News Digest is to make sure you're always in the know. We hope you'll enjoy it. Yahoo News Digest makes your news reading experience simplified, effortless, comprehensive, and complete," the blog post read.
With the said app, no news is too long to be read. Yahoo will not present stories as boring summaries but rather give its audience a visual presentation that will help them appreciate the news more. There are also categories so users can easily keep track of their favorite stories and when they are finish browsing through news items, they will see a "done" message to have a "moment of completion" just as how D'Aloisio puts it. The app also records the stories users have read and provides a countdown when the next digest will be delivered.
News Digest is now available for download from the Apple App Store.
