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Tag: LiveStand

  • Yahoo: Forget Livestand, Use Axis

    Yahoo: Forget Livestand, Use Axis

    Yahoo thinks it can compete in the mobile browser space, and has apparently decided not to worry about competing in the tablet news reader space – at least not as directly.

    Actually, it would probably be more accurate to say that Yahoo wants to compete in news reading, browsing and search all from one app – Axis, which it introduced this week.

    In a blog post today, Yahoo announced that it’s shutting down Livestand, its competitor to the popular iPad news reader app Flipboard. The reason it’s shutting down? Consolidation.

    “As announced during our most recent earnings call, we’ve decided to discontinue or consolidate a number of products across Yahoo!’s technology platforms over the course of 2012,” says the post from Regan Clark. “Platform consolidation enables us to put many Yahoo! properties onto common key platforms and technologies to make everything more scalable and nimble. And when we discontinue products, it will be so that we can focus on opportunities where we lead and where we can create the most meaningful experiences for people using our products, and for our partners, developers and advertisers. One of the first decisions we’ve made along these lines is to discontinue our personalized digital newsstand app, Livestand for iPad.”

    Keep in mind that there is a heavy focus on pushing Yahoo content in the new Axis app. Search results (or at least suggestions) have been suggested to heavily favor Yahoo content (Yahoo Sports, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo News, etc.). Of course Yahoo Trends are front in center in the app.

    “We have learned a lot from Livestand and are actively applying those insights toward the development of future products that are better aligned with Yahoo!’s holistic mobile strategy,” says Clark. “We are pivoting to a mobile-products-first development model (check out Yahoo! Axis as a great example of this) and there’s no doubt that one of the biggest, if not THE biggest, priorities for us is to innovate for the mobile user, whether they’re using feature phones, smartphones or tablets – or iOS apps, Android apps or mobile web browsers, for that matter.”

    Yahoo only announced Livestand in February 2011. It’s surprising to see it go so soon. I’m guessing Axis will be the major area of focus as far as Yahoo’s mobile strategy goes, for the foreseeable future.

  • Yahoo Updates Livestand

    Yahoo’s Mobile Blog announced today that it’s releasing a revamped version of Livestand, its interactive magazine app for iPad. The changes include a new layout and retooled navigation features.

    livestand revamp

    General Livestand updates include the addition of an auto log-in, which allows users to pick up reading where they left off, a new user-tutorial and improved article presentation featuring full images.

    Specific updates include:

    A redesigned My Library experience: A pull-down feature provides an at-a-glance view of the latest headlines.

    Enhanced options for adding new topics to Library: New publications tagged appear directly in your Library, making it even easier to see all the new, fresh content at your fingertips.

    MyYahoo! and Google Reader: Tracking all your favorite sites and blogs can now be done with the integrated MyYahoo! or Google Reader feature. A few simple taps will bring all your feeds into your Livestand library.

    Yahoo’s Livestand was launched as a Flipboard competitor last fall, along with AOL’s Editions. So far, the app has been doing well for the company, which is good news, in light of Yahoo’s woes of late. CEO Scott Thompson has recently released a letter to employees to better map out Yahoo’s direction while restructuring. All Things D posted a copt of the memo here.

  • Yahoo Livestand to Launch This Fall

    Last week, one of the hot topics was that Google is working on a Flipboard competitor, which is reportedly called Propeller. AOL launched one in Editions last month.

    Well, you may recall that Yahoo announced one earlier this year called Livestand. It appears that may be launching pretty soon.

    Arif Durrani at MediaWeek spoke with Yahoo Chief Product Officer Blake Irving, who said that Livestand will be out this Autumn. Here are some quotes from Irving Durrani shares:

    “Think of it as a tablet version of Yahoo. In addition it’s a magazine stand, where you can get different types of content, and it’s also HTML 5 based.”

    “What we’re trying to do is create a container that says we have a visual experience that allows us to take graphics, videos and text into a consumption that allows us to display it in the same way across IoS or [An] Driod. That’s what every publisher on the planet’s trying to do.”

    “[With Livestand] You don’t have to publish more than once… If you’re either Google or Apple, you want guys writing to your platform. But if I’m a publisher, I don’t want to have to write to those things two times.”

    One can only assume that as tablets continue to grow in popularity, we can expect to see more and more of these types of apps to emerge. Considering the never-ending problem of too much info available and not enough time to read it, companies and developers will continue to try and crack the nut to solve it.

    I’m not sure it’s completely solvable, but we should see some interesting products come out nevertheless.

  • Yahoo To Launch Digital Newsstand For iPad And Android Tablets

    Yahoo said today it would launch a digital newsstand called LiveStand, aimed at tablets and mobile phones, in the first half of this year.

    The company said LiveStand will offer content to people based on their personal interests.

    Content from Yahoo will include sports, news, finance, Flickr, omg!, and its contributor network.

    Yahoo-LiveStand

    “Adoption of tablets and mobile phones is exploding, and digital media isn’t keeping up. Consumers can’t find the publications they buy off the newsstand, and publishers and advertisers can’t reach the audiences they want to serve,” said Blake Irving, executive vice president and chief product officer for Yahoo!.

    “As the premier digital media company, we’re in a position to meet all of these needs. Livestand is an immersive environment that provides a dynamic and personalized experience for consumers.”

    Yahoo said LiveStand will be available to users as an iPad and Android tablet  application with a mobile phone and browser version to follow.