Zite reader moves to Windows Phone, CEO very happy about it [Video]

By Daniel Rubino
last updated

WP Central

Zite for Windows Phone - now available

We haven’t heard much about Zite (zite.com), a news service that’s owned by CNN, but we should start paying attention to it. Zite is not just a news-app but rather a service that finds stories based on your likes and interests which gets you away from the “information overload” that many of us experience today.

The app has been on iOS since late last year and is also on Android too but now the service is coming to Windows Phone and the CEO is quite excited—mostly because he uses a Lumia 710.

In fact, according to an interview on Cnet, Nokia and Microsoft both lent the Zite team “support for technical training and also provided code and design clinics to aid the app's development”—so if you ever wonder what Nokia is doing for Windows Phone users, well there you go.

Zite CEO Mark Johnson seems quite thrilled with the move to Windows Phone (he used to work at Microsoft) as he sees the OS as the next big thing in mobile. In addition, the font and layout lend itself naturally to a “reading app” something to which we agree.

There’s also that other advantage—the Windows Phone Marketplace is not that crowded meaning if you get in early, you can establish yourself and dominate:

"The marketplace is not as crowded right now, so I'm really excited to get in front of the news market because when we launch we will have the best news-reading application on Windows Phone".

Using more than 2,000 categories for articles and an algorithm that draws from Twitter and Google Reader, Zite looks to be an interesting twist on an old problem—how do we find stories that interest us that we weren’t looking for? The app works by associating with Twitter and Google Reader, you then choose which sections you would like for "your magazine". After that,  the the service brings down a personalized experience with featured articles to your liking--in that sense, it's similar to Weave for Windows Phone except that you can like/dislike article to help refine the algorithm. From our limited experience with it, the service works well and does what it promises. How it translates to Metro will be the exciting part.

No word on exact release nor if this is a Nokia exclusive but we’ll reach out and see what we can find about Zite.

Update: App is hidden in the Marketplace but you can grab it now here for all Windows Phones. Thanks, everclear76, for the link

Source: Cnet

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.

30 Comments
  • awesome, I guess this means the app will see good support since it is advocated from the top!
  • Article is available in the marketplace now.  It is still marked as hidden but the deep link is as follows.   http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/38d5a1d2-5de3-4710-aa9c-6074e6854eff   should be searchable soon.
  • I *love* Zite on my HP TouchPad - this is great news!   I've tried Weave on my L900, but it just isn't the same.   I hope the Zite UX will be as compelling on the smaller screen.
  • wow, well so far Zite is the best discovery news reader I've tried.  Very cool and very nice implementation.  Bravo!!!!  and double BRAVO for the CEO using the right phone!
  • Give all CEOs of popular apps a windows phone and see if they still don't want to develop for it.
  • +1000
  • Sounds like Flud...
  • That's great. Its my number 1 iPad app.
  • Fantastic!  I use this all the time on my HP TouchPad.  I'm downloading it now to my Lumia 710.  Thanks, Zite.
  • Love this app.  Glad to see it here finally.
  • So you have to have a google reader account, or it just scans it? I dont have one so I suppose this wont work for me?
  • Nope, you don't need any account from anywhere.  You can customize Zite without having it scan your Twitter, Facebook, Google Reader, etc.
  • I needed a Z lettered app, this is great for that
  • +1
  • "CEO is quite excited—mostly because he uses a Lumia 710"
    someone need to give that CEO Nokia Lumia 900 :)
  • Remember using Zite on my Touchpad before installing CM9 on it!
  • tried it it's lousy at best. Guess it'll be updated to fix those bugs, wish we could pin sections too.
  • Love Zite on my iPad. Can't wait to have it on windows phone and surface
  • This app sucks. Most of functionality doesn't work, for example twitter login?
  • You don't "login" for Twitter it just looks at your public stream--it operates the same on Android. For free I think the app is killer--have any other reasons why it "sucks"?
  • Way to appreciate those who have actually taken the time to develop for WP.
  • Similar to Project Emporia from Microsoft Research Fuse Labs.
  • Emporia is nice as a MS experiment...which is what it is. Zite is a widely available commerical service. That's important for consumers and those switching to Windows Phone.
  • Zite is my favorote app on the Touchpad.  To see this on WP7...rock on!  Downloaded it right away.  I tihnk it looks clean and performs well.  LOVE IT!
  • I gave this app a try just because of that tidbit about the CEO having a Lumia 710.
  • Smart of them to get there before Flipboard. Zite is great but Flipboard is the sh*t.
  • Man, the writer of that linked CNET article, Donna Tam, is really biased against Windows Phone.
  • This was one of my "must have" apps that Windows Phone needed to get. I'm glad to see it so soon!
  • "He uses a Lumia 710." That's my phone. I'm glad it broke the ground for yet another WP convert.
  • This might be the reader app I've been looking for.