Google’s Fast Flip

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

The Beeb takes a look at Fast Flip, Google’s new service that allows “users consume news more quickly and to boost the flagging fortunes of the news industry:”

Fast Flip imitates a conventional print publication by offering screenshots of the web pages containing relevant articles.

The stories are organised following a number of different criteria. For example, readers will be offered articles that have been popular all day, that reflect their personal preference or that have been recommended by friends.

Users who want to dig deeper into the story can click through to the publisher’s website.

To make money, Fast Flip also serves up contextual adverts around the screenshots.

Publishers who have signed up to provide content to the service will share in that revenue; that was proof, said Ms Mayer, that Google was keen to help the industry at a time when it was clearly struggling.

“We are excited to team with publishers and look at a new possibility for how people might consume news online and how to monetise it,” said Ms Mayer.

Two observations.

First, Fast Flip appears to be part of a growing trend toward horizontal internet browsing. We are seeing more and more sites in which content flows left-to-right in a virtual 360-degree environment than straight north-to-south.

Second, my initial reaction is: eh.

Check it out yourself.