Taptu
Encyclopedia
Taptu is a social media and technology company that builds platforms, tools and applications that enable highly personalized creation, curation, recommendation, search, discovery, management, consumption and sharing of content across all personal screen-based devices, and most significantly on touch screen mobile devices, including the iPhone and Android phones. Taptu is a privately held company that was founded in Cambridge
in 2007 and is backed by funding from Venture Capitalists including DFJ Esprit and Sofinnova
. The company is based in Cambridge
and Denver, Colorado.
Currently, the app lets users add content through:
1) Social Streams: Users can add their Twitter, Facebook, or Linked In feeds to My Taptu. They can also add the feeds of select newsmakers or publishers that My Taptu have curated. Any time someone in a user's social circle shares a link with them, My Taptu will display a preview of the article and its source in the app itself.
2) Single Streams: The single stream of content comes from one source, and runs all of the news or content coming only from that source. For example, a person can add “The New York Times” breaking news as a stream.
3) Mixed Streams: Mixed streams are curated by topic. Content comes from a variety of sources. For example, the technology news stream could contain news flowing from TechCrunch, the New York Times Bits Blog, Read Write Web, Engadget, Gizmodo, Wall Street Journal among others. Taptu believes mixed streams put a story into a wider context, and help people discover content they might have not originally sought out.
4) Web Watcher Streams: Taptu has technology that it calls the “web watcher.” This allows it to watch web sites that have no RSS feed and no mobile presence and turn their content into streams. The company uses it to fill out their fashion streams.
My Taptu was released in the App Store and the Android Marketplace on November 9th, 2010. It has received several positive reviews. and Apple promoted the App on its UK App Store front page by selecting it as a feature App of the Week shortly after My Taptu launched.
To support the launch of My Taptu, the company commissioned a series of online videos. The videos are designed to illustrate that My Taptu had a wide enough depth and breadth of content to appeal to any niche interest or passion a person has. One of its successful videos depicts the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, riding a “Boris Bike” Danny MacAskill
-style at a local London skate park.
Taptu first product was a mobile search engine, provided as a web site using html optimised for phones, and dedicated "apps" for iPhone and Android. It was closed in early 2011, with an announcement from Mitch Lazar stating the intention to focus on the news aggregation product.
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
in 2007 and is backed by funding from Venture Capitalists including DFJ Esprit and Sofinnova
Sofinnova
Sofinnova is the name shared by two formerly-related venture capital firms, Sofinnova Ventures and Sofinnova Partners. Both firms trace their roots back to Sofinnova SA, an investment institution founded in Paris in 1972. The two firms have raised nearly $3B combined since inception, and share...
. The company is based in Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
and Denver, Colorado.
Products
Taptu currently has two products. Its flagship product is the recently launched My Taptu, a social news aggregator that draws heavily on the company’s mobile search heritage but attempts to move them beyond search. According to Taptu, the app, which is available on the iPhone and Android devices, is "aimed at solving information overload," or what Taptu calls "app hopping." It presents all the information that a person "is into" in a "one- stop app" through "streams," or what CNET describes as “content playlists.” My Taptu has tried to separate itself in the increasingly crowded social news space by offering various ways of personalizing and building My Taptu.Currently, the app lets users add content through:
1) Social Streams: Users can add their Twitter, Facebook, or Linked In feeds to My Taptu. They can also add the feeds of select newsmakers or publishers that My Taptu have curated. Any time someone in a user's social circle shares a link with them, My Taptu will display a preview of the article and its source in the app itself.
2) Single Streams: The single stream of content comes from one source, and runs all of the news or content coming only from that source. For example, a person can add “The New York Times” breaking news as a stream.
3) Mixed Streams: Mixed streams are curated by topic. Content comes from a variety of sources. For example, the technology news stream could contain news flowing from TechCrunch, the New York Times Bits Blog, Read Write Web, Engadget, Gizmodo, Wall Street Journal among others. Taptu believes mixed streams put a story into a wider context, and help people discover content they might have not originally sought out.
4) Web Watcher Streams: Taptu has technology that it calls the “web watcher.” This allows it to watch web sites that have no RSS feed and no mobile presence and turn their content into streams. The company uses it to fill out their fashion streams.
My Taptu was released in the App Store and the Android Marketplace on November 9th, 2010. It has received several positive reviews. and Apple promoted the App on its UK App Store front page by selecting it as a feature App of the Week shortly after My Taptu launched.
To support the launch of My Taptu, the company commissioned a series of online videos. The videos are designed to illustrate that My Taptu had a wide enough depth and breadth of content to appeal to any niche interest or passion a person has. One of its successful videos depicts the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, riding a “Boris Bike” Danny MacAskill
Danny MacAskill
Danny MacAskill, also known as 'Danny MegaSkill', is a Scottish trials cyclist, from Dunvegan on the Isle of Skye. He is 176 centimeters tall and works professionally as a street trials pro rider for Inspired Bicycles Ltd. He released , a five-and-a-half-minute street trials video, filmed by his...
-style at a local London skate park.
Other Product
Taptu’s other product is Wapedia, a mobile Wikipedia service.Taptu first product was a mobile search engine, provided as a web site using html optimised for phones, and dedicated "apps" for iPhone and Android. It was closed in early 2011, with an announcement from Mitch Lazar stating the intention to focus on the news aggregation product.
Management
Mitch Lazar, former MD of Yahoo Mobile Europe, is CEO of Taptu. He stepped into the role on 20 October 2010, after spending 3 months as President and COO. Steve Ives, founder and former CEO, moved over to president where he remained until early 2011Recognition and Awards
- Overall Mobile Search Company of the Year, Mobile Search Awards, September 2008
- Best Search Provider 2008, Mobile Entertainment Awards
- Commercial Category, MEX Design Competition
- Red Herring Top 100 European Tech Startups, April 2008
- Global Community Award, MobileMondayMobile MondayMobileMonday is an open networking organisation for mobile industry professionals fostering cooperation and cross-border business development through virtual and live networking events to share ideas, best practices and trends from global markets...
Peer Awards, February 2008 - Meffys 2010, Winner of Content Discovery and Personalisation Award
- TechCrunch Europas 2010, Highly Commended in the category of Best Mobile Start Up
External links
- Taptu homepage
- - Taptu blog
- 3i investors portfolio: Taptu
- Sky News Technofile: The Google Years: The Future of Online Search Engines
- Mobile Search Company Taptu aims high
- WapReview, Taptu
- PodTech.net, Demo of how Taptu is way better than Google for mobiles by Robert ScobleRobert ScobleRobert Scoble is an American blogger, technical evangelist, and author. Scoble is best known for his blog, Scobleizer, which came to prominence during his tenure as a technology evangelist at Microsoft. He is married to Maryam Ghaemmaghami Scoble. He has three children; one from a previous...