A Startup Repackages the News for a Facebook Generation

It's as if the world's celebrities, politicians, and companies were your Facebook friends. News aggregation website Wavii distills current affairs into a feed of the kind of pithy, easily digested updates seen on the social network.

Users of Wavii (pronounced "wavy") who logged in April 10 would have been informed of the biggest technology news of the day with a short update similar to those that Facebook produces when two people enter a relationship: "Acquisition: Facebook acquires Instagram for $1 billion." Clicking on the update yields more information and a link to online articles about the event; clicking on a company name calls up a profile page showing all recent updates about it. Wavii creates its newsfeed by digesting information from online news sources and turning them into short summaries. It adds photos, charts, and maps as appropriate. Users choose a set of interests, companies, or people that they want to see updates about in their newsfeed.