TLDR by Inside.com

Quick news every time you open a new tab

8 followers

Quick news every time you open a new tab

8 followers

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Launch tags:iOS•Web App•Productivity

Launch Team

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Inside

Maker

We spent a lot of time making all kinds of features for our news curation app, Inside, but the numbers kept saying the same thing: people just wanted to quickly browse the top news. So we made a simple, streamlined app called TL;DR to just give you the news right f*cking now, with conversational, jokey headlines to make it fun to read. Take a look. Would love some thoughts and feedback.

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11yr ago

InVision

@jason Love this - installed already!

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11yr ago

Inside

Maker

@clarkvalberg @jason thanks pal... means a lot coming from the product expert who built the product we built TLDR in!!!!!! I think you just ripped a hole in the space-time-product continuum!!!

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11yr ago

@jason you nailed it!

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11yr ago

@jason this is awesome! been a subscriber of the launch ticker for a while. Looking forward to reading the news that way as well!

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11yr ago

Curiosity

@jason Nic work Jason and @raydawg88! This is great and glad I got to see how fast you built it at Launch Scale last week. Love the simplicity of it.

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11yr ago

Buffer

Nice! I was going to ask what sets you apart from other instant news apps out there, but I just installed and loved how I didn't have to *do* anything to start reading quick news. It was just there for me - no signup or "pick my interests". Loved it. The headlines are a nice touch too - just a little bit of irreverence without pissing anyone off. Are you guys handwriting those? Or pulling from elsewhere & programmatically modifying them for use in the app?

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11yr ago

Inside

Maker

@sphmrs we write the abstracts and we pick the stories with humans making $14 an hour.... almost everyone else uses social signals, a community (reddit) or keywords/algos (google) and some just slap an RSS on it. This makes us a little slower, but we have higher quality. we will see if it works!

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11yr ago

Inside

Maker

@sphmrs I was actually delighted to find that our team really embraced writing irreverent, fun headlines. Seemed like it'd be a challenge to get more serious, journalism-oriented people to cut loose like that, but it was pretty easy. The hardest part is striking the right balance between being sort of cheeky but not offensive or obnoxious. Glad you're enjoying it!

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11yr ago

Inside

Maker

@sphmrs I was delightfully surprised at how quickly our normally straight-laced writing staff started cranking out funny headlines. You wouldn't think being just the right amount of quippy would be that common a skill. As you suggest, the toughest part is striking a balance between being fun but not obnoxious or inappropriate. Glad you're enjoying it.

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11yr ago

This will kill my productivity. I'm addicted to news and restrict myself to only consume it in little breaks over the day. This extension will probably kill my productivity - love it! ;) Still @jason - Any plans to integrate an on/off switch (e.g. for working hours)?

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11yr ago

Inside

Maker

@svenle that's a great idea...... will put it on the trello board.

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11yr ago

Velona AI

Maker

@svenle That's a really cool idea. We've been playing with a few toggle ideas...but time based hasn't come up. I'll add that to the list.

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11yr ago

@raydawg88 @jason Thanks guys!!! Would be awesome. After actively testing it for a day I have to deactivate the plugin. It's too much energy to "force-focus", especially in research phases. Which means you actually did a great job with this - tempted to click an article every time I'm opening a new tab... ;)

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11yr ago

Velona AI

Maker

@svenle Be sure and grab our iOS app if you're on an iPhone so you can still stay up on the news with TLDR.

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11yr ago

@raydawg88 @svenle Will definitely do so!

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11yr ago

Just installed. All I get is a blank screen "Top News" and a gear link to settings. Is this because I'm not in the USA? - iPhone app version.

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11yr ago

Inside

Maker

@brianoflondon that is odd... ping adam AT inside.com and we'll figure it out.

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11yr ago

No problems in Germany on a Mac.

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11yr ago

@jason @brianoflondon seem that I'm having the same problem. I am also from Europe. Launching the TL;DR on iphone6 and no news loads, only have a blank white screen with a line and the setting icon.

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11yr ago

@franciscaknai @brianoflondon @jason +1 having the same problem with no news loading on a uk based iPad.

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11yr ago

@dturneresq @brianoflondon Can confirm this issue. Also from Europe (Germany).

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11yr ago

Soon

Congrats on the launch, @jason. Really smart. I imagine this is a piece of the strategy, but how do you get younger people to really *care* about news? My generation seems pretty uninterested in news - in the traditional sense - nowadays. There's so much noise and so much content out there. I'll be the first to admit that I'm much more interested in tech news and updates on my friends (Instagram, Snapchat) than "true" news, as the latter feels overwhelmingly negative. Outside of a desire to feel (or worse, appear) informed and cultured on the one or two big international/political/cultural events of the week, I (and many of my peers) don't pay too much attention. Buzzfeed, Snapchat, and of course, you at Inside are trying to change to this, but millennials just seem to be far more interested in the Kardashians (or in my case, what's trending on Product Hunt). How does this change? Does it need it need to change? I'd like to think so, but I'm not sure things are going in that direction.

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11yr ago

@jacksondahl I believe it can change, definitely. All you need to do is to speak to them in their own language, and the way they want their news handed to them. Nothing lengthy, nothing complicated. I've been doing this with my own newsletter whathappenedlastweek.com and most of my subscribers (3000+) are millenials.

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11yr ago

Inside

Maker

@jacksondahl young people today look at news as entertainment, and I think they are so savvy/cynical they assume that it's all bought/covert advertising. So, it will take time for Gen-Y and Gen-C to look at the news and say "hey, this is important and we should trust it." of course, the news providers have to be trustworthy, make significant investments and figure out a way to operate in a world where advertising has been, largely, commoditized by platforms. It's really hard to get a premium CPM when the folks at Twitter and Facebook can sell any publishers audience -- and pay them nothing! you can literally advertise to the @nytimes and @engadget followers on Facebook and Twitter and give those publications NOTHING. ZERO. How crazy is that? How were they able to sneak that in?!?!

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11yr ago

Task Pigeon

@jason your comment about people/brands being able to advertise directly to NY Times or Engadget Followers on Facebook and Twitter intrigued me as I had never really thought about the effects of advertising on Facebook/Twitter from that point of view. I obviously understood the ability to get very granular with your targeting but then never considered that you are essentially getting the benefit of all the effort that the NY times (or some other specific brand/business) took to develop a following within that particular niche you wish to target. Essentially you can get the benefit of what could potentially costs tens (if not hundreds of thousands) of dollars to advertise on these mastheads for cents on the dollar/$'s per click via Facebook/Twitter. While that's great for the person trying to reach that audience it does seem unfair on the part of the publisher. While they are losing direct traffic to their publication (especially with the likes of Facebook instant articles) they are also getting hit over the head by not receiving any share of the revenue that they essentially helped cultivate by having an audience that someone is interested in reaching. Perhaps this is an area where another social app/network could gain a foothold (assuming of course they reach a certain level of critical mass first) by giving publishers some level of control and reward for their efforts. Perhaps under a fairer model generic targeting of users by age, sex, location, education level, etc allows the platform to maintain 100% revenue, whereas if an advertiser specifically opted to target followers of someone like the New York Times or Engadget then those brands get a % share of the ad revenue. Very interesting insight and definitely something I will research in more depth given the current project I am working on. BTW first app I opened this morning for my news hit over breakfast was TL;DR

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11yr ago

#Masks4All

I haven't even checked out the product yet (I will a bit later today) but my favorite part is that @jason stayed up to post this himself and then hang out to answer comments. You've had your f'u money exit + worth an additional 10s if not 100s of millions on the Uber deal. And yet still hungry for product feedback and engagement with users. Respect.

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11yr ago

Inside

Maker

@mishachellam i'm in it for the Hunt comments..... always! can i interest you in the LAUNCH Incubator or This Week in Startups while we're at it?!?! #hustle #neversleeps

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11yr ago