Kittiwake

What it does

Follow the news on the questions you care about, without reading everything. Kittiwake watches a topic for you, scores every new story against your question and turns the day's coverage into one signal from 0 to 100, so you see at a glance whether things are moving.

Ask a question, get a signal

• Write a topic, a few keywords and the question you want answered, such as "Are flight delays on the rise?".
• Every story is scored on how closely it matches your topic and question, and off-topic stories are set aside. Duplicate stories from several outlets are grouped into one.
• The signal and its 8-week line show where the story is heading, with the week's change next to it.
• Twelve starter watches to begin with: pick one and make it yours.
• Only what is new: unread stories carry a dot, and stories found since your last check sit at the top.

Alerts when it matters

• An alert score for each topic: a notification when a story crosses it.
• A daily digest at the time you pick, and a weekly recap with the week's biggest mover.
• Background checks keep your topics up to date. On the Mac, Kittiwake lives in the menu bar.

Share without the noise

• A signal card: your question, the signal, the week's change and the 8-week line, as a picture. No headlines, no article text.
• Watch links: send a watch to a friend; Kittiwake always shows what a link contains and asks before adding it.
• Copy a brief for yourself, or send a summary as Markdown or by mail.

Widgets and shortcuts

• Widgets in two sizes on the Mac desktop, the iPhone Home Screen and Android show the signal and its line.
• Shortcuts and Siri on Apple devices: ask for a topic's signal, or copy today's brief.

Your sources

• Google News
• GDELT news database
• Any RSS or Atom feed you add

Every story links to the publisher's own page.

Privacy in one paragraph

There is no account, no ads, no tracking and no analytics, and nothing is sent to the developer. Kittiwake connects only to the news sources you use, straight from your device, to fetch the latest stories. Stories are scored on your device: with Apple's on-device model on the Mac and iPhone, by keywords on Android. Your topics and stories stay on your device. The full privacy policy says the same at more length.