Quick WebApp: Google FastFlip for iPhone

Google FastFlip Instructions

Determined to maintain their place atop WebApp mountain, Google released a new service today as part of their Labs testbed, and again it helps push forward just what’s possible using cloud services (online data) and interactive front ends (AJAX in the browser). Google Blogs says:

Fast Flip [http://fastflip.googlelabs.com/] is a new reading experience that combines the best elements of print and online articles. Like a print magazine, Fast Flip lets you browse sequentially through bundles of recent news, headlines and popular topics, as well as feeds from individual top publishers. As the name suggests, flipping through content is very fast, so you can quickly look through a lot of pages until you find something interesting. At the same time, we provide aggregation and search over many top newspapers and magazines, and the ability to share content with your friends and community. Fast Flip also personalizes the experience for you, by taking cues from selections you make to show you more content from sources, topics and journalists that you seem to like. In short, you get fast browsing, natural magazine-style navigation, recommendations from friends and other members of the community and a selection of content that is serendipitous and personalized.

Right now they’re providing content from New York Times, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, Salon, Fast Company, ProPublica and Newsweek, but the news we’re excited about, and indeed have come to expect from Google is this:

We’ve also made a mobile version of Fast Flip [http://fastflip.googlelabs.com/mobile] with tactile page flipping for Android-powered devices and the iPhone, so you can browse on the go. This is accessible at the same address.

Now if this were combined with something like Google Books, lets say…

A couple more pics after the break. If you try it out, as always, let us know what you think.

[Thank Muero for the tip!]


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7 Responses to “Quick WebApp: Google FastFlip for iPhone”

  1. Stan The Man Says:

    I don’t think I’ve ever been to any of those websites in my life. The mainstream media is a dinosaur slowly dying out. When is the last time any of you picked up newsweek outside of a doctors office? When I google something happening right now, the mainstream media is never the first with breaking news. Because it’s from Google it’s probably s cool app but the content I’d uninteresting at best.

  2. Jason Says:

    I subscribe to Newsweek. If you’re looking to old media for breaking news, though, you’re missing the point. (Sadly, many in the print journalism business haven’t yet figured that out either.)

  3. Al Says:

    Still, this is exciting technology taking advantage of the advances in that mobile safari browser. By tactile page turning, they won’t mean vibration feedback do they? That might be kind of cool but I don’t think a website can make the phone to that.

  4. heathsnow Says:

    I dig it. It speaks to the news junky in me. This cannot be good :P

  5. Rohit Says:

    Google Fast Flip is indeed a delight to use on the iPhone! bit.ly/JWPM9

  6. Byebyebb Says:

    NYT? Couldn’t they start with a more credible source like The Enquirer?

  7. Steve Says:

    I don’t get it. Why do I care?

    I can get the same info from Google Reader AND I get to see the whole article and navigate around the page without clicking a new link.

    What’s awesome about this that I’m missing?

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