• VentureBeat, Thursday, September 8, 2011 12:13 PM

Taptu, which MobileBeat dubs a "news DJ app company," shortly plans to let any old Joe build their own app using a laymen-friendly "news mixing engine." Aiding the effort is $3.5 million in second-round funding from DFJ Esprit and Sofinnova. "The move makes sense for Taptu, since powering other people's apps is its next logical step after finding success with its own news DJ apps on the iPhone, iPad and Android (including both phones and tablets)," MobileBeat writes.

Anyone should be able to use the company's Tapform to create their own social news aggregator apps, or even add news aggregation capabilities to existing apps. Regarding the latter features, Taptu CEO Mitch Lazar explains: "With Tapform we are opening our technology, allowing other companies and media entities to incorporate features that make Taptu a hit."

Formerly a mobile search company, Taptu "pivoted" into news reading apps last year, MobileBeat notes. "But it wasn't until the company added its news DJ feature, which lets users search and mix their news streams to their liking, that it truly began to differentiate itself from competitors like Pulse and FlipBoard."

Read the whole story at VentureBeat »