Rich Gorman Acclaims NewsWhip as Next Step in Social News-Gathering
NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - Jan 15, 2013) - As technology matures and social networking grows increasingly ubiquitous, data from networks like Facebook and Twitter is increasingly used as a resource by app developers. More and more apps tap into the social signals provided by a user's social media feed, and use those signals to provide customized news headlines, social trend reports, product recommendations, and more. Not all of these social-assisted apps are created equal, however -- and, according to technology enthusiast Rich Gorman, a new app called NewsWhip has made great strides toward separating itself from its competitors. In a new statement to the press, Gorman offers acclaim to the NewsWhip app -- and opines on the future of social-assisted news aggregation.
"This is hardly the first app that draws from social media signals in order to provide users with personalized news and headlines," remarks Gorman, in his press statement. "However, the app's development team has taken some critical steps in ensuring that their product is different from the rest -- and in doing so, they have pointed to the future of social news-gathering."
As Gorman notes, NewsWhip is not the only app of its kind. Its most noteworthy competitor is Flipboard, a social news reader that gleans information from Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks. The NewsWhip service is similar, but distinct in a few crucial ways -- most importantly, because rather than drawing only from the user's own social spheres, it pulls trending activity from social networking users more broadly, in an attempt to provide a more comprehensive, yet still concise, summary of the day's news and current events.
"This is ultimately a very different animal, because, unlike Flipboard, it is not necessarily aiming to tell users what their friends and acquaintances are talking about," Gorman explains. "Rather, it seeks to draw on social cues to condense the news and headlines of the day, providing users with insights into what people are actually talking about."
NewsWhip works by scouring social networks and picking up on the news stories that are most widely shared, tweeted, and "liked." Stories are divided into a variety of categories, such as business and tech, and the NewsWhip algorithm actively scans those stories that receive the most social media "heat," presenting them in a live stream for users to explore.
"While Flipboard and apps like it seek to show you what your friends are talking about, NewsWhip offers more objective insights into what's hot, both in the U.S. and abroad," comments Gorman. Indeed, in addition to classifying news stories by topic, NewsWhip also allows users to sort stories in terms of geography, revealing what is current and trending in ten different countries.
The NewsWhip app does offer some options for personalization. There is a function called "My Whips," which remembers which topics and sections of the app the user visits most frequently. The categories available include music, technology, movies, health, food, and celebrity gossip.
The goal of the app is ultimately to make it easy for mobile users to keep up with current events, in the categories of their choice. The development team has heralded the app as a new resource for those who wish to keep up with current news and happenings while riding on a train, waiting at a restaurant, or spending "a few minutes on the toilet."
According to Gorman, NewsWhip is a big step forward in digital news consumption. "This is one of the best efforts yet at condensing news into a palm-sized, engaging, and easy-to-read summary," he explains. "In this ever-active and increasingly mobile-oriented era, that is a formula for success."
Rich Gorman is a tech pundit and app enthusiast, active on Twitter @richgorman101.
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Rich Gorman Acclaims NewsWhip as Next Step in Social News-Gathering