Banjo has released an update today for its Android and iOS applications as well as a brand new website that brings a new feature called “Rewind.”
The new feature allows users to pinpoint a specific time during an event to view the updates and experiences of others at that moment, which the company says will do to the Internet what TiVO did for TV.
Once you click on an event — such as SXSW or the Kiev protests — you’re able to quickly go back in time to see how the event unfolded on social media and in the news and see how it unfolded through the updates of those who were there.
It’s amazing just how powerful this functionality is for following events as they unfold, especially since Twitter itself doesn’t provide any tools that help with tracking developing stories or for following events in a meaningful way.
Banjo captures social media updates from across many platforms, including Instagram, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook to try and piece together the best picture of how an event unfolded. What’s amazing is just how high-quality the content is; Banjo automatically filters out a lot of the spam that’s seen on social media so that it’s clean and easy to read.
Banjo originally launched at SXSW in 2012 as a service for meeting new people in your area, but the service pivoted in January to tracking events on social media.
The new Banjo presents itself as something that appears on the surface to be very similar to Storify, except much of the service is automated and uses a secret algorithm to analyse social media in real time to present it in a readable banner.
Download the updated version of Banjo from the iOS or Android store to try the new Rewind feature and you’ll never be behind on a trend again.
