In today’s online world, it’s an inescapable fact that we are bombarded by news items on an almost second to second basis. It’s seemingly limitless. Upon entering the Twittersphere, every site you encounter usually features coverage on something; with some appearing more spurious than others, as we all know too well. Have you ever thought it would be great to filter all that content into the stuff you actually want to read? If so, you need look no further than Newsmeter, the brand new app from Habermetre that puts you in control of what you want to be informed about. It’s free, it’s out now, and it’s going to make your online life a whole lot easier.
It’s a simple app with a simple premise. Providing you with nothing more complex than a search bar, upon instruction, Newsmeter will rifle through more than ten thousand news sites and sources to provide you with a comprehensive list of options on your chosen topic. Crucially, this list is comprised of current sources from all across the web, not just any old dusty page from the long forgotten Internet vaults which happens to feature your keywords.
When I searched rising Irish star ‘Hozier’ for instance, the first hit was an international article that was written not two hours before. Impressive. I did the same thing on Google, arguably Newsmeter’s biggest rival, and the top hit was a paragraph-long, Irish-specific article by the national broadcaster. I know which one I’d rather read. This kind of relevancy is crucial in the fickle, ever-changing landscape of online news; Habermetre claim they’ve spent two years developing the infrastructure of this app, and I presume most of that time was spent ensuring the filtering system was up to scratch.
The app also feels right at home on the iPhone. It’s quicker and more immediate than booting up Safari and fiddling with Google tabs and the like. The layout is direct and simple. The app knows what it’s about and sticks to it. It doesn’t overwhelm you with sources either; out of the handful of searches I ran, it seemed to come back with just the right amount on each pass. This is one of those rare apps that will have a permanent place on my phone; if you too are sick of flicking through semi-relevant news articles and just want to get to the good stuff, I suggest you seek it out.
Plug yourself in at your own newsdesk by downloading Newsmeter for free on iTunes.
