Flipboard received a lot attention when it introduced its app for the iPad. Flipboard aggregates content posted by friends on Facebook and Twitter. Enter your Twitter name and Facebook account, and it turns those feeds into a magazine, complete with photos, headlines and virtually flippable pages. The app was named by Apple as the iPad app of the year for 2010.
In a statement to introduce Flipboard’s latest competitor Ali Devar, Zite’s founder and CEO said “There’s no automatic system that’s catching the important stuff I miss every day. Search doesn’t solve it. Social doesn’t solve it. A lot of [Zite beta testers] came back to us and said, ‘Thank goodness, here’s something that gives me my content and more, but filters it for me.’ People are feeling the pain, and they need it resolved.”
Zite pulls in stories from your Twitter feed, if you wish, or your Google Reader account. Neither are necessary. You can also choose from hundreds of topics you’re interested in or start with the plain-vanilla version of the magazine. Every story comes with thumbs up and thumbs down icons and a button to request more of that kind of story.
