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"AUSTIN \u2014 Mobile app Thirst won the SXSW Accelerator in 2012 as a Twitter magazine, of sorts. It analyzed Twitter in real-time, organized tweets by topic, and presented that content in an easy-to-read way.\nA year later, the app is back at SXSW, now with a slightly revamped version that (instead of focusing on Twitter) now focuses on what you read online. Launched three weeks ago, the new version is closing in on 100,000 downloads.\nAt SXSW, Thirst will be looking at Twitter posts as well as thousands of RSS feeds in order to determine which are the most buzzed-about startups and events. It will be displaying a constantly-updating list of that information on its website, as well as on a television on the floor at SXSW.\n\nWhile the visualization of hot stories is cool, the way Thirst delivers news to users on a daily basis is even cooler.\n\u201CWe now go through thousands of articles a day and millions of RSS feeds, and can now build the newspaper for people,\u201D Thirst founder Anuj Verma told Mashable.\nThirst is also building a social network or news, so you can follow someone on Thirst, and then see at a glance what articles they\u2019re reading and commenting on. A social network for readers, if you will.\n\u201CIf I take the same photo and share it to Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, one of those networks gets the most traction for me, event though I have accounts on all three,\u201D says Verma. \u201CFor news, nothing like that existed and there\u2019s something social about news.\u201D\nWhile there are certainly tons of options out there for reading your news, Thirst offers something a little different.\n\u201CIf you look at Flipboard and Pulse, all those guys make you share out content you read to Twitter or to Facebook, and that works and we let you do that, but why not build this Internet network where you can share and discuss stuff?\u201D\nUnlike other readers that make you select specific topics and sites you\u2019re interested in, Thirst learns your reading habits and what you like and dislike over time. And it displays stories based on what you\u2019ve read in the past.\n\n\u201CI might like to read about five topics right now, but that might change in six weeks,\u201D says Verna. \u201CSo as you read we do that for you.\u201D\nNot straying entirely from its Twitter roots, the app also displays avatars for your Twitter and Facebook friends below a topic that person is chatting about on those social networks.\n\u201CWhat I\u2019ve been reading and what I like to read, that information about me doesn\u2019t exist anywhere else,\u201D says Verna. \u201CWe want to be the place that people read to represent themselves.\"\nThirst is available now for iPhone and iPad from the App Store.\nThumbnail Image courtesy of Flickr, Ryan.Berry, Screenshots Courtesy Thirst"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/03/07/thirst-sxsw/>