Summify, the startup whose service sent email summaries of the most interesting links from users’ social networks, announced this week its sale to Twitter. While it was good news for Summify’s five-person team, users of the service have reacted with a good deal of trepidation, since Summify has already stopped accepting new users and plans to remove a number of existing features post-deal. The long-term future of Summify’s product is certainly in limbo.
But a couple of startups have already stepped up to fill any vacancy that has arisen. News.me and Percolate, which both provide personalized news aggregation services, are positioning themselves as a safe haven for Summify users post-Twitter deal.
News.me made no secret of its intentions, writing a company blog post published Friday entitled “Summify Users: We’re here for you. You’re Safe.” News.me said it saw a “massive influx” of questions about its Daily Digest social networking and news aggregation product, and directly asked Summify users to share what they liked most about Summify’s product and asked for advice on what features News.me should implement.
Percolate similarly made a play for new customers with a new section of its website dedicated to Summify users. The webpage reads: “Friends of Summify, Thanks for dropping by. Register below to start receiving your Daily Brew: A digest every morning of the top links from your world.”
It’s a great example of how thriving the web startup scene is today. Users are understandably upset when a beloved service starts to go away, but the Summify situation this week shows that nowadays, where one successful service closes a door, other startups are more than happy to open a window.
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