

Ask HN: What product can be built around automatic summarization algorithms? - MojoJolo

Hi, I have an automatic summarization algorithm for web articles (extraction only). What product can be built from it? Or how can it be used as a startup product?
======
gtmtg
Summly ([http://thenextweb.com/apps/2011/12/17/meet-the-16-year-
old-w...](http://thenextweb.com/apps/2011/12/17/meet-the-16-year-old-whose-
summly-app-notched-up-17k-downloads-in-4-days/)) does exactly this... It was
created by a 16-year-old and generated tons of press, getting VC funding and
all...

It's worth noting that the app website is down and it's not available on the
App Store anymore; however, according to their Twitter feed, a new version is
supposed to be released soon...

~~~
MojoJolo
Tried Summly, as a matter of fact, it is included in my related systems. I
don't know what happen to them that they don't exist as of today. Well, in my
opinion, it doesn't summarize that good.

You also might want to check Cruxbot (<http://www.cruxbot.com/>).

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mcrider
Is it multidocument summarization? I wrote a term paper on this back in school
some years ago and though the technology is very interesting, it left a little
to be desired (so I wonder what the state of the art is now). The applications
I studied for this are removing bias in e.g. news articles, critic's reviews,
etc.

~~~
MojoJolo
Mine is only single document summarization. Yes, it's an interesting
technology but I think there is not much of improvement.

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yolesaber
You could build a studying / note-taking app. Feed in source articles
(textbook, PDF, et all) and have it automatically generate outlines.
Customizable SparkNotes. This could be useful to every student in the world.

~~~
MojoJolo
Can extracted sentences be considered as outline?

~~~
yolesaber
The summary for the TechCrunch article you posted below reads to me like an
outline. As long as the extractions encapsulate the main themes and ideas of a
certain piece, they would be viable study tools.

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l1ghtm4n
How about summarizing blog posts for twitter?

~~~
MojoJolo
This is a cool idea. But the algorithm only extracts the most important
sentences. What will happen is it will just tweet the most important sentence
in the blog post (considering that it's 140 characters or less).

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schoash
Create an API and sell access to it. Later if you come up with an idea, you
can still build it.

~~~
MojoJolo
Who can be the target market for those APIs that I will sell?

~~~
saurik
How much per call, and how long is the output? Example of quality?

~~~
MojoJolo
Output is 5 sentences. Quality is still being tested but here's a sample:

from this article [http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/09/do-you-need-to-be-a-jerk-
to...](http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/09/do-you-need-to-be-a-jerk-to-be-a-
successful-entrepreneur/) Do You Need To Be A Jerk To Be A Successful
Entrepreneur?

\- I recently read Ben Austen’s WIRED article about Steve Jobs, which prompted
me to put together my thoughts about the tradeoffs of being a successful
entrepreneur.

\- After reading it, you might be convinced that you can either be a jerk and
successful or decent and mediocre.

\- Successful people come in all forms and they all have different
limitations, baggage, prejudices, and ways of looking at the world.

\- Jobs was successful because his unreasonably high goals, brilliant insight,
and relentless passion made people want to work with him.

\- You don’t have to have a surly personality to be successful, although
sometimes it comes with the territory.

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jclos
Have you benchmarked it on some standard IR collections (TREC-DUC comes to
mind)?

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arvindevo
Maybe, summarize the text of emails for people who receive lots of email each
day.

