Evri, a startup that recently launched its iPad app, is attempting to make news aggregation as specific and personalized as possible. Users are able to choose what kinds of news they’re interested in from millions of topic choices. Evri then pulls stories from many different sources and creates individual channels based on each user’s unique preferences.

As opposed to most news readers that allow users to pick different sources to follow, people choose the actual topics to follow on Evri, and they can get very specific. Individual people can be followed, so just about any story concerning an individual news-maker, politician, athlete, or celebrity is sent to that individual’s followers. The options are countless. Evri also suggests content related to the topics each person follows, so it’s easy to branch out and build a network of related subjects of interest. And if people don’t want to pick topics to follow, they can easily browse by section and get their news in that more traditional way, with dozens of options.

Evri also offers strong integration with social media. People can add their Facebook and Twitter accounts, so they can see their social news feeds along with their chosen news stories. Items can be shared on the aforementioned sites, along with Instapaper and Read it Later, among others.

Like Twitter, Evri can also be used to find out what’s going on right now in the world based on its trending topics, corralling which topics are being followed, written about, and mentioned and then displaying them in sortable lists. If something out of the ordinary is trending, there’s probably a reason for that, and with a click users can see the top news stories for that topic. Recently, for example, Ricki Lake, Nancy Grace, and Rob Kardashian have all been trending - an odd three people to be trending simultaneously, until one realizes that they’re all contestants on this season of Dancing With the Stars. Then it starts to make more sense. Evri can keep people in the loop that way. It’s usually worth clicking on the trending topics, because it means something newsworthy has happened regarding it. As opposed to going to different news sites to find out what’s going on, looking at the Evri trending topics is a fast and easy way to get a clue.

At quick glance, Evri doesn’t seem to be inventing anything new with aggregation. That’s been happening on the Internet for quite some time, and the iPad has apps for it, too. But the extent to which Evri is able to filter topics socially and internationally is something particularly unique, and it might be just what Evri needs to succeed.