Google's Fast Flip to aded to print media revenues
16 Sep 2009
Google has unveiled a service called Fast Flip to let users consume news more quickly and to boost the flagging fortunes of the news industry.
The product is designed to mimic the way readers flip through magazines and newspapers. The service has been launched in partnership with more than 30 providers including the BBC to offer a new reading experience.
The news industry has been struggling to emerge out of the grip of the downturn and trying raise revenues by charge money for content which it has been giving away free.
Last month, media mogul Rupert Murdoch said the he hoped all of his major newspapers would offer only paid content online by the end of June next year (See: Murdoch's News Corp to charge readers for online content and News Corp hopes to form paid online content consortium)
Fast Flip imitates a conventional print publication by offering screenshots of the web pages with relevant articles.
The stories are organised on the basis of different criteria like 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 will need to click through to the publisher's web site.
