Twitter Acquires Social-Aggregation Startup Summify

Continuing strong on its recent acquisition spree, Twitter announced on Thursday the acquisition of Summify, a social news aggregation start-up based in Vancouver. As the Summify team transitions to its new Twitter digs in San Francisco, the Summify products will slowly be shuttered and streamlined, according to a company blog post. Summify states its core […]
Summify surfaces the most relevant data amid your aggregate social streams. Photo courtesy of Summify
Summify surfaces the most relevant data amid your aggregate social streams. Photo courtesy of Summify

Continuing strong on its recent acquisition spree, Twitter announced on Thursday the acquisition of Summify, a social news aggregation start-up based in Vancouver.

As the Summify team transitions to its new Twitter digs in San Francisco, the Summify products will slowly be shuttered and streamlined, according to a company blog post. Summify states its core aggregation product -- which summarizes the disparate flows of information that flood in from your Twitter, Facebook and Google Reader streams (among others) -- will shut down in a few weeks.

Considering the torrent of information Twitter delivers on a real-time basis -- to say nothing of all the other social networks where we work and play -- the possibility of integrating a product like Summify makes a great deal of sense. The product is essentially a daily bulletin of pertinent information, using algorithms to separate the 'wheat' it thinks you want to read from the 'chaff' you don't. And if you're a voracious news and social information consumer like the average Silicon Valley techie, Summify functioned as a great way to get your fix of what you've recently missed.

But Twitter isn't as worried about the Digerati as it is about the social network laypersons -- those uninitiated in Twitter's ranks. For the everyman, attacking Twitter for the first time is no easy feat. It's a confusing amalgam of symbols and verbs, a vernacular all of its own that isn't immediately accessible. To combat this (in part, at least), Twitter launched a complete sitewide redesign in December, aiming to broaden its user base.

"Cristian Strat and Mircea Pasoi have created a product that curates the best and most important stories in your Twitter timeline and Facebook newsfeed," Twitter spokeswoman Carolyn Penner told Wired.com in an e-mail. "Cristian, Mircea and their team of three engineers will join our Growth team and explore ways to help people connect and engage with relevant, timely news."

So integrating Summify seems a probable next step. Facebook and Google+ rely on their own algorithms to deliver relevant news to users' streams -- it makes sense that Twitter would aim for something similar.