On Tuesday, Oct. 3, Yahoo announced that it rebranded its main app, changing its name to Yahoo Newsroom. The new Yahoo Newsroom aims to become a place where users can enter discussions based on topics and can form groups.
Yahoo Newsroom
According to Digital Trends, Yahoo details its new news-centric app on a Tumblr blog post. The new core mobile app called Yahoo Newsroom aims to make it easier for users to discover content relevant to their fields of interest, in order to participate in conversations around issues they are passionate about.
The Yahoo redesigned app looks similar to Flipboard and appears to be inspired by other social media sites that keep both conversation and consumption of content native. From a single app, users can check out all the latest headlines across fashion, sports and politics as well as sharing their opinion on the latest developments.
Yahoo Newsroom's New Features
Accordind to CNET, the topics on Yahoo Newsroom are categorized as Vibes. They can be as specific as certain events or as general as World News.
Based on the Vibes users interact with and articles they click on, the app's algorithm is learning about users' interests with the aim that Yahoo Newsroom app will be able eventually to automatically cater to them.
Dave Bottoms, vice president of Yahoo Media Experiences, explained in an interview that users of the Yahoo Newsroom app will be also able to contribute to existing Vibes. A major aspect of the experience will be community contributions.
Reasons For Rebranding
With Reposts and Likes, the Yahoo Newsroom application takes notes from Twitter and Tumblr. Yahoo's rebranding is focusing on the website a news resource. Bottoms said that the core platform aims to empower the community.
Yahoo has been once a leading pioneer of the internet, but the company has lately struggled to compete with younger websites such as Facebook and Google. In July, Verizon signed a deal to acquire Yahoo for $4.83 billion. Tech analysts expect that Yahoo will be merged with AOL, another veteran Internet company.
