Yahoo! unveils tablet apps to get back in the game

Yahoo! which was once a prime company for web users, has been criticized for failing to move away from the computer to the mobile phones and tablets that users are now engaging with. According to Reuters, the web company has released a slew of tablet apps to get back into the game. The company is aiming at attracting third-party publishers and advertisers. The apps unveiled include Livestand which is a multimedia newstand for tablets, which was first revealed at a Yahoo! event in February. According to ZDNet, it accumulates content from various publishers including Yahoo! itself and presents the content in a magazine like format. It is a direct competitor of FlipBoard for the iPad and includes titles like ABC News, Forbes, Bike and more.

Yahoo!’s Livestand app on a tablet

In addition, Yahoo! also released a weather app for Android devices, Yahoo! Weather. The app includes pictures that the web service sources from its picture sharing app, Flickr. The pictures are intended to be a visual for weather conditions in the area searched for, including time of day. So for instance, if you’re searching for Mumbai weather at 8 pm, a shot of the lit up Queen’s Necklace at night might appear in the background. The app will be available in 35 languages in 63 countries.

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Yahoo! also released a newer version of IntoNow, which is a social media application that deals with television on tablets. The app is almost like a Shazam for tablets where it discovers what television program you are watching based on closed captioning and subtitles and will pull up recent and relevant stories about the television show.