Google Fast Flip
Encyclopedia
Google Fast Flip was an online news aggregator from Google
Inc. that mimicked the experience of flicking through a newspaper
or magazine, allowing visual search
of stories in manner similar to microfiche. It was launched in beta by Google Labs
at the TechCrunch 50
conference in September 2009.
The site presented images of stories from Google's news partners, which could be clicked on to navigate to the story on the news provider's own website. Stories can be scrolled between using the mouse or cursor keys. The presentation of stories uses a similar algorithm to Google News
, but stories can be ordered by publication as well as by subject. Krishna Bharat of Google News has said that "Fast Flip is mostly for longer shelf-life content, the kind of content you want to recommend to other people." Fast Flip was created after Larry Page
"asked why the web was not more like a magazine, allowing users to flip from screen to screen seamlessly." Fast Flip is available on iPhone
and Android mobile devices.
Users of Fast Flip were able to follow friends and topics, find new content, and to create their own customized magazines around their searches.
At launch, there were 39 mainly US-based news partners. Google said it would share the majority of revenue from contextual adverts with its news partners.
Fast Flip has been praised for allowing visual, fast and serendipitous
browsing of news stories, but it has been criticized as being a novelty, anachronistic, as it emulates print media, limits navigation and presents few news sources, and as being more focused on the needs of publishers than of readers. Its visual search has been compared to the beta visual search of Microsoft Bing and to The Onion
s microfiche iPhone app. Fast Flip has also been cited as a demonstration of Google's power in the news marketplace; by setting up another news interface that uses publishers' content without returning much value.
In September 2011, Google announced it would discontinue a number of its products, including Google Fast Flip.
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
Inc. that mimicked the experience of flicking through a newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
or magazine, allowing visual search
Visual search
Visual search is a type of perceptual task requiring attention that typically involves an active scan of the visual environment for a particular object or feature among other objects or features . Visual search can take place either with or without eye movements...
of stories in manner similar to microfiche. It was launched in beta by Google Labs
Google Labs
Google Labs was a page created by Google to demonstrate and test new Google projects. Google calls Google Labs,Google also uses an invitation-only phase for trusted testers to test projects including Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Wave and many of these have their own "labs" webpages for...
at the TechCrunch 50
TechCrunch50
TechCrunch50 was a conference held at the Design Center Concourse in San Francisco, California on September 14-15, 2009, hosted by TechCrunch and Jason Calacanis. Its aim was to find the best Web 2.0 start-ups and launch them in front of the industry's most influential venture capitalists,...
conference in September 2009.
The site presented images of stories from Google's news partners, which could be clicked on to navigate to the story on the news provider's own website. Stories can be scrolled between using the mouse or cursor keys. The presentation of stories uses a similar algorithm to Google News
Google News
Google News is a free news aggregator provided by Google Inc, selecting recent items from thousands of publications by an automatic aggregation algorithm....
, but stories can be ordered by publication as well as by subject. Krishna Bharat of Google News has said that "Fast Flip is mostly for longer shelf-life content, the kind of content you want to recommend to other people." Fast Flip was created after Larry Page
Larry Page
Lawrence "Larry" Page is an American computer scientist and internet entrepreneur who, with Sergey Brin, is best known as the co-founder of Google. As of April 4, 2011, he is also the chief executive of Google, as announced on January 20, 2011...
"asked why the web was not more like a magazine, allowing users to flip from screen to screen seamlessly." Fast Flip is available on iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
and Android mobile devices.
Users of Fast Flip were able to follow friends and topics, find new content, and to create their own customized magazines around their searches.
At launch, there were 39 mainly US-based news partners. Google said it would share the majority of revenue from contextual adverts with its news partners.
Fast Flip has been praised for allowing visual, fast and serendipitous
Serendipity
Serendipity means a "happy accident" or "pleasant surprise"; specifically, the accident of finding something good or useful without looking for it. The word has been voted as one of the ten English words hardest to translate in June 2004 by a British translation company. However, due to its...
browsing of news stories, but it has been criticized as being a novelty, anachronistic, as it emulates print media, limits navigation and presents few news sources, and as being more focused on the needs of publishers than of readers. Its visual search has been compared to the beta visual search of Microsoft Bing and to The Onion
The Onion
The Onion is an American news satire organization. It is an entertainment newspaper and a website featuring satirical articles reporting on international, national, and local news, in addition to a non-satirical entertainment section known as The A.V. Club...
s microfiche iPhone app. Fast Flip has also been cited as a demonstration of Google's power in the news marketplace; by setting up another news interface that uses publishers' content without returning much value.
In September 2011, Google announced it would discontinue a number of its products, including Google Fast Flip.