Yahoo App Update Shows Fruits of Summly Acquisition

The initial yield of Yahoo's $30 million acquisition of Summly is now on display. The company relaunched its flagship app for iPhone and iPod touch devices Monday morning, which uses Summly's artifical intelligence and natural language processing algorithms to deliver short summaries beneath story headlines.

The home screen of the app still displays thumbnails and headlines in a stripped-down — and frankly, ugly — format by default (below left). Switch to "Visual" mode in settings, and you'll be treated to the new Summly experience: Headlines and summaries laid over a blown-up thumbnail background (below right). You can specify your section and topic preferences under settings as well — a bid to make your Yahoo news experience more "personalized." Read more...