Storify was a

social network service A social networking service or SNS (sometimes called a social networking site) is an online platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interests, act ...

that let the user create stories or timelines using

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

such as

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

and Instagram. Storify was launched in September 2010, and had been open to the public since April 2011. Storify was shut down on May 16, 2018. In September 2013, Storify was acquired by

Livefyre Livefyre was a blog comment hosting service that pioneered real-time comment sections on the web. It offered live blogging, user profiles, link aggregation, web annotation, media uploads, and moderation tools. The company was based in San Fran ...

, in turn acquired by Adobe Systems in May 2016. The standalone service was discontinued on May 16, 2018, with users being directed to "Storify 2" as part of the Adobe Experience Manager Livefyre product.

Use

Media organizations used Storify in coverage of ongoing news stories such as elections, meetings and events. Poynter.org recommended using Storify for covering social movements, breaking news, internet humor and memes, reactions and conversations, and extreme weather. CBC used Storify to cover the

2011 London riots The 2011 England riots, more widely known as the London riots, were a series of riots between 6 and 11 August 2011. Thousands of people rioted in cities and towns across England, which saw looting, arson, as well as mass deployment of police ...

TRT World TRT World is a Turkish public broadcaster international news channel which broadcasts in English 24 hours a day, operated by the TRT and based in Taksim Square, Istıklal Avenue, Beyoğlu, Istanbul. It provides worldwide news and current affai ...

used Storify to cover the UK general election 2015 and

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...

has a show called "The Stream" that collected perspectives on news stories using Storify.

Features

The main purpose of Storify was to allow users to create stories by importing content from various forms of

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass e ...

into a timeline. Users were able to search for content related to their story from sources such as

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

(one of the more popular ones), Instagram,

Flickr Flickr ( ; ) is an American image hosting and video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was a popular way for amateur and profession ...

, and

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

, as well as other stories on Storify, and then drag that content into their own Storify story timelines. Users could add comments to the links that they provided within their stories, and could also embed URLs in their stories. Users could also embed their own Storify stories for content syndication elsewhere on the internet.

History

Storify launched its private beta as a finalist at

TechCrunch TechCrunch is an American online newspaper focusing on high tech and startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. In 2010, AOL acquired the company for approximately $ ...

Disrupt in September 2010. It won the Startup Accelerator at South by Southwest in 2011. The company received $2 million in funding from

Khosla Ventures Khosla Ventures is an American venture capital firm founded by Vinod Khosla, focused on early-stage companies in the Internet, computing, mobile, financial services, agriculture, healthcare and clean technology sectors. Some of its most successf ...

. Storify's

public beta A software release life cycle is the sum of the stages of development and maturity for a piece of computer software ranging from its initial development to its eventual release, and including updated versions of the released version to help impro ...

went live in late April 2011.

TIME Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

rated Storify as one of the 50 best websites of 2011. The concept was created in 2010 by co-founders Burt Herman and Xavier Damman. The website got its current name from the obsolete, former dictionary word: ''storify''. Storify means "to form or tell stories". Burt Herman worked as a

correspondent A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locati ...

at the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...

where the word ''storify'' was regularly used by editors. On December 12, 2017, Storify announced that no new accounts could be created as of that date, and that its standalone website would be shut down effective May 16, 2018, as it only supports the "Storify 2" version built into the enterprise Adobe Experience Manager Livefyre product.

Traffic information

As of October 2014, Storify had a global

Alexa Alexa may refer to: Technology *Amazon Alexa, a virtual assistant developed by Amazon * Alexa Internet, a defunct website ranking and traffic analysis service * Arri Alexa, a digital motion picture camera People * Alexa (name), a given name a ...

rank of #3,961 and over 50,000 sites linking in. Internet averages indicated that most Storify users were women between 25 and 34 years of age who had no children and browsed the site from work.

References

External links

* * {{official website, http://www.storify.com Aggregation websites Internet properties established in 2010 Internet properties disestablished in 2018 Storytelling Twitter services and applications Defunct social networking services