The mobile search experience (and Internet browsing in general) isn’t as intuitive or functional as it could be. And that’s where Summly, our new favorite app, comes in. Simply put, Summly provides a simpler way to browse and search the web. It not only works, but it works well. Yet that’s not what’s so mind-blowing about Summly.
What’s even more amazing about this app is that it was created by a 16-year-old (yes, you read that right.) Makes you feel like a slacker, right? Nick D’Alosio is the creator of Summly, which, according to an interview on The Next Web, was originally created as an iPhone app called Trimit “that allowed users to take large chunks of text that they write or import through a link, and shrink it down to fit a social network update.”
After a relaunch, Trimit reemerged as Summly, which provides search results that are automatically summarized. The goal is to create search results that are more relevant and easy to consume, allowing you to spend less time trolling pages of results and more time reading the information you seek.
The bad news? For now, Summly is only available on iOS devices (all the more reason to go Apple, people.) Yet judging by the app’s wild success—17,000 downloads in the first four days of its release—Summly will likely be available on other devices in the near future.
How does Summly work?
When you search for something in Summly, the app generates a list of relevant content and summarizes the site in a bulleted list and accompanying keywords. That way, you can quickly judge if the site is what you’re looking for, or if you need another option.
And because Summly is an app, the tool is optimized for mobile devices and is easy to use. Sharing functions allow you to email a summary or link. When you find what you’re looking for, you can open the link in Safari for continued browsing.
You can also use Summly in reverse order, too. Let’s say you’ve found a site in your mobile browser but aren’t sure if it’s what you need. You can pull the site into Summly to generate a summary that will give you an overview of what’s on the site, allowing you to quickly determine if it matches your intent. Check out the video below for a guided tour of Summly.
If you work in digital marketing and the social space, then you’re no stranger to searching for and absorbing large quantities of content at any given time. We certainly aren’t, and that’s why Summly has been such a hit with the V3 Team. Anything that makes our jobs easier—and works on our iPhones—is pretty much guaranteed to make the top of our list. After all, time is money—and if you can find tools that help you do your job that much better and while saving more of your resources for other tasks and responsibilities, then it makes perfect sense that you add those tools to your professional arsenal.
Have you jumped on the Summly bandwagon? We’d love to hear your thoughts on the app and how it’s worked for you.
Shelly Kramer is a Principal Analyst and Founding Partner at Futurum Research. A serial entrepreneur with a technology centric focus, she has worked alongside some of the world’s largest brands to embrace disruption and spur innovation, understand and address the realities of the connected customer, and help navigate the process of digital transformation. She brings 20 years’ experience as a brand strategist to her work at Futurum, and has deep experience helping global companies with marketing challenges, GTM strategies, messaging develoment, and driving strategy and digital transformation for B2B brands across multiple verticals. Shelly’s coverage areas include Collaboration/CX/SaaS, platforms, ESG, and Cybersecurity, as well as topics and trends related to the Future of Work, the transformation of the workplace and how people and technology are driving that transformation. A transplanted New Yorker, she has learned to love life in the Midwest, and has firsthand experience that some of the most innovative minds and most successful companies in the world also happen to live in “flyover country.”
