Yahoo Puts Its $30 Million Summly Acquisition To Work In An Update To Its Apple App

Yahoo is already using its controversial $30 million acquisition Summly in its iOS app.

CEO Marissa Mayer announced an update to the app in a blog post, saying, "The new Yahoo! mobile app is also smarter, using Summly’s natural-language algorithms and machine learning to deliver quick story summaries. We acquired Summly less than a month ago, and we’re thrilled to introduce this game-changing technology in our first mobile application."

Mayer is a fan of Summly. She used Summly to provide a truncated version of her earnings script last week.

Inside the company, we hear it's referred to as Yahoo's Siri. Summly's technology comes from the same company that built Apple's voice-based software Siri.

Here's her full post on the new app:

Consuming news and information on the go has become the norm -- whether waiting for a morning coffee or commuting home from work, content discovery is an insatiable daily habit. Our mobile phones have opened up a window to the world, with the latest news, sports updates, and entertainment coverage right there in our pockets. Because consuming content is such a core part of our everyday lives, today we’re launching our new Yahoo! mobile app for iPhone. Beautifully designed with smaller screens in mind, the new Yahoo! is all about delivering the best of the web -- right on your phone.

Story Summaries on The New Yahoo! App on iPhone

The new Yahoo! mobile app is also smarter, using Summly’s natural-language algorithms and machine learning to deliver quick story summaries. We acquired Summly less than a month ago, and we’re thrilled to introduce this game-changing technology in our first mobile application. And, with the immersive imagery of our virtually endless newsfeed, the new Yahoo! app has both great technology and beautiful design front and center. Because searching for great content is also core to the Yahoo! experience, we’ve also improved the search experience with better video and image search.

Image Search on the New Yahoo! App for iPhone

Want to stay on top of breaking business news or even the latest in the world of science? Just select the types of stories you’re interested in. Within each article, you can easily select more of the topics you’d like to see, and less of those you don’t. When you’re signed into Yahoo!, the choices you make are saved across screens. The more you use Yahoo!, the more relevant and interesting the experience becomes -- on mobile and desktop.

Personalization on The New Yahoo! App for iPhone

The Yahoo! app for iPhone and iPod Touch is currently available to our users in the U.S., please try it out and let us know what you think. This is just the beginning of the new, more mobile Yahoo!, so stay tuned for more!

Download the new Yahoo! App on iPhone and iPod Touch.