Clipped.me, the Perfect App for a Reader On-The-Go

Let’s face it: you’re only going to skim through this article.

But you’re not to blame. Our lifestyles in the fast-paced world of the 21st century has turned our online reading habits into a time-efficient action. Wondering why?

It’s because we seek information, not necessarily some more complex knowledge. Of course, in the latter – we would probably read the article thoroughly, from the beginning to the end, because our reading intention is different. In that particular case, we want to learn something, not just keep up with the news and trends.

According to the Nielsen Norman group, 79% of users only scan the page they are reading, looking for keywords and highlighted information to provide them with some sort of answer. The Internet is used as an extremely powerful encyclopedia that’s continuously being updated with new answers and all we want are digests and nicely formatted texts so we can enjoy the key takeaways and be up to date.

Are we lazy or just take the value of our time resources seriously? Whatever the case may be, Clipped.me is a perfect solution. Here’s what it’s all about.

Clipped.me and the Technology Behind it

Clipped.me ensures you encounter only the most relevant and important information by summarizing various types of news across the World Wide Web – especially for you. It is an app (currently available only for iOS) that uses the technology called Natural Language Processing, developed by Tanay Tandon, founder and CEO of Clipped.me. It also relies on LSTM neural networks (Long Short-Term Memories), which are a complex area of deep machine learning.

[su_box title=”Consuming digital media on the go is gradually increasing and pushing desktop aside, as 58% of people use their mobile device to surf the world wide web, ComScore’s 2016 U.S. Mobile App report has stated.” class=”trap small left”][/su_box]

Unlike its competitors (e.g. Flipboard), Clipped.me uses this revolutionary technology which grammatically analyzes the text and is capable of determining the most important sentences that hold key information. The algorithm is designed to recognize sentences as parts of speech and therefore identify what segments depend on one another. It then conducts a keyword analysis and recognizes statistics in order to hierarchically organize information. The crafted summary is checked for the last time and then key points get organized into bullet points.

Consuming digital media on the go is gradually increasing and pushing desktop aside, as 58% of people use their mobile device to surf the world wide web, ComScore’s 2016 U.S. Mobile App report has stated. User habits constantly evolve and this shift towards mobile means Clipped.me has hit the bullseye.

How it All Started

Believe it or not, Tandon was just a fifteen-year-old high school sophomore when he developed Clipped.me. It was actually created out of pure need, as he explained to Fast Company:

I founded Clipped in 2012 as a sophomore in High School. The project began when I wanted to find a way to quickly read files in debate class by extracting the most relevant points from evidence. I wrote the Grammatical Pattern Analysis based algorithm for text-summarization, and launched the startup with an Android, iOS, and web application.

[su_box title=”Up until now, Clipped.me has summarized over 40 million articles (and counting).” class=”trap small right”][/su_box]

Tandon worked in the Stanford AI lab as a machine learning researcher and developer intern where he experimented with different types of algorithms before developing Natural Language Processing. He then managed to publish his research and earn a National scholarship. But the app itself was bootstrapped, without any external financial support.

Up until now, Clipped.me has summarized over 40 million articles (and counting), but naturally – the app has been improving over the course of years. Back in the days, it required a login from Facebook or Twitter and aggregated content based on the way you use your social profiles, so to bring the content summarized to your preferences.

How You Can Use Clipped.me

Today, you don’t need social logins for Clipped.me, while those most important data-points are served in a compelling and consumable way, so you can enjoy them.

Clipped.me offers you a more intelligent way of reading through news. It helps you discover new content and start reading summaries with just a click. Not only does it help you keep up with the news, but it also saves you time in means of choosing those articles you want to read from the top to bottom. We all know titles are not descriptive enough nor do they guarantee the quality of content or display in detail what is the article about. Summaries bridge that gap and let you take a peek of the key information before clicking to read the full article.

Here’s how you can use clipped.me:

• Browse based on categories (Clipped.me uses top news sources from which it aggregates summaries)
• Use the search field if you know what type of news you’re looking for
• Read the news lightning fast (enjoy short summaries, bullet lists, and even infographics)
• Access the original article just with a click, in case you want to fully read it

The app is available for download free of charge, and it requires iOS 6.0 or later. Reading on iPhone has never been easier as Clipped.me truly enables you to get the most of your scrolling.

[su_box title=”Clipped.me offers you a more intelligent way of reading through news.” class=”trap small left”][/su_box]

In addition, there is a Clipped.me Chrome plugin you can use for a more convenient desktop reading, although it has not been updated for quite a while. By installing it, a Clipped.me button will appear on your tab. If you want the content of the page you’re currently summarized, simply click on the button and enjoy your key information presented in a easily consumable way.

What (Future) Entrepreneurs Can Learn Here

Tandon is a young man who already achieved a lot, but he continues to conquer the world of science. He is a founder of another company Athelas that could potentially revolutionize healthcare with its low-cost blood diagnostic device relying entirely on deep machine learning.

But let’s do a bit of reverse-engineering here to see what lies behind Tandon’s success, beside his brilliant mind.

Clipped.me was developed during his busy high school days, thanks to self-discipline and commitment. He worked hard on utilizing every single minute of his day, between socializing and doing school work. During the winter break (right before the app was launched), Tandon worked up to 7 hours per day.

The app was built out of pure need and with an assumption there is a need for it. Upon its launch, it was not profit-oriented, it was bootstrapped, and kind of like a test project where Tandon, with his developer support and team, tried to put their knowledge into practice. And it worked out pretty good. There were initial plans to monetize the app through the API service and sell it to news outlets.

Here are the main lessons you can take with you:

• Having a plan is great, but sometimes just doing stuff is more important
• Don’t be afraid to plunge into the entrepreneurial world
• You’ll have higher chances of succeeding if you do something you love
• As you breathe the life into your product, it will take different courses of growth, it will adapt to user needs and other circumstances and live a life of its own (and that is completely ok)
• Nurture curiosity and try building a business on human resources until you scale (this means you need a team who is willing to work for free because it shares the vision you have)
• Business success is not something like a milestone you’re done working on once you reach it; it’s a constant, highly dynamic process, leading you to new projects

If you have an idea that’s more than a draft, but you’re still too scared to take a shot – starting a website has become a fairly easy first step towards building a successful company of your own. Domain.me has always stood behind great young innovators and supported their business journeys by giving them an online home that’s unique, personal, and offers many great branding possibilities.

Try Clipped.me for a more efficient news browsing and learn from the story behind it to start your own ventures!