Webby – simply & elegant app that aggregates Web content that You prefer
by Paul Wilks
Aug 24, 2012 4:31 PM –
Install
Webby is a lush and innovative aggregator that makes it easier to catch up on all the web trends that are important to you. Essentially it takes your Google preferences and crafts an easy-to-use list of interesting stories, from a variety of places. However, with the likes of Google Currents, Flipboard and Zite making news aggregation a scorching hot category in the Google Play Store, how is Webby going to compare?
Price: Free, $1.99
Tested on: HTC One X
Content Rating: High Maturity
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Gorgeous interface!
- Easy to use!
- Automatic aggregation of stories!
- Bookmarking, sharing and comments!
- Download full articles!
- Offline reading!
Cons
- Not able to remove certain sources.
- Not as customisable as other news readers.
Features:
Webby is a neat little news reader that’s able to group together a range of news sources of interest to you in one, slick, easy-to-read interface. It essentially takes your preferences from your Google account and aggregates accordingly and, in my experience, it’s pretty accurate. It is simple to use too, you just have three banners to navigate between- Bookmarks (articles you’ve saved), Top and Recommendations. You scroll from side to side to view these, then up and down to view your listed stories.
Much like apps like Zite, you often only get the story intro before you link away to the full webpage to read the rest. However, one benefit is that it links with a reader called Readability, which we actually reviewed separately earlier this year. On one hand this is a good feature to have- one of my complaints with Zite was that reading the experience was often hindered by jumping from the lush interface of the app to the more clunky unreliability of different websites. Added features include bookmarking- the ability to save your favourite stories, add comments via the built-in Socialize feature and share your favourite articles via the likes of Facebook and Twitter.
I really like Webby- the interface makes reading the news all the more enjoyable. The extra features make the app intuitive and the automatic way it compiles resources succinctly means you just have to open the app, sign in and start reading in a matter of seconds.
One significant niggle is that you can’t seem to remove certain news sources. For some reason the app felt I needed a number of articles related to cooking. Now, I’m certain I don’t follow any blogs, news sources or RSS feeds that concentrate on making fresh bread yet the app seems convinced it is something I must be interested in. The problem lies in that you can’t edit or customise these virtual interests in the app. Unlike the ability to unsubscribe in the likes of Google Currents or Flipboard, you’re apparently stuck with them in Webby.
That aside, I still found loads of interesting content that kept me occupied for quite a while when I first tried the app out. Perhaps the big issue for Webby and its clearly dedicated developers is that this patch of the Google Play Store has some genuine Titans in the form of Flipboard and Google Currents which, unlike the full version of Webby, are completely free. Webby somehow has to differentiate itself enough to stand out against the competition- apps like Pulse, Taptu and even StumbleUpon also fall in this space- each with a significant fan-base. Right now, and sadly so as it is a great app, I’m not sure Webby differentiates itself enough to wrestle away users from other news aggregators.
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Webby – Top stories
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Webby – Story view
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Webby – Recommendations
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Webby – Bookmarks
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Webby – Use Readability to see full articles
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Webby – Options in dark theme
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Webby – Top story list in dark theme
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Webby – Longpress options
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Webby – Share to options
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Webby – Font size options
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Webby – Settings
Usefulness:
Webby is great for getting up to date and interesting news sources from a variety of different places. I certainly stumbled upon a range of excellent stories upon immediately opening the app. The fact that you can’t remove certain news sources is a minus point, as is the lack of deeper customisation. These aside, you can download content for offline reading via Readbility, and read full articles.
Ease of Use:
Webby is certainly very easy to use, definitely more so than other such readers. This, in part, is due to automation; it selects stories based on your Google preferences and presents them in a slick and easy-to-navigate interface.
Frequently Used:
If this was to become your sole reader application, it’s certainly something you could use on a daily basis, depending on your preferences.
Interface:
The interface is beautifully simple, elegant and great to use. You can select between a dark or light theme, and the whole app looks and feels great.