 | |
 Screenshot of the Fast Flip homepage | |
Type of site | News |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Owner | |
| Created by | |
| URL | fastflip.googlelabs.com |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Not required |
| Launched | 14 September 2009[1] |
| Current status | Discontinued |
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.[2][3][4] It was launched in beta by Google Labs at the TechCrunch 50 conference in September 2009.[5][6][7]
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.[7] Stories could be scrolled between using the mouse or cursor keys. The presentation of stories used a similar algorithm to Google News, but stories could be ordered by publication as well as by subject.[6] 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."[8] 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."[4] Fast Flip was available as well on iPhone and Android mobile devices.[9]
Users of Fast Flip were able to follow friends and topics, find new content, and to create their own customized magazines around their searches.[10]
At launch, there were 39 mainly US-based news partners. Google said that it would share the majority of revenue from contextual adverts with its news partners.[7][8][11]
Fast Flip was praised for allowing visual,[12] fast[13] and serendipitous[14] browsing of news stories, but it has been criticized as being a novelty,[15] anachronistic, as it emulates print media,[16] limits navigation and presents few news sources,[17] and as being more focused on the needs of publishers than of readers.[18][19][20] Its visual search has been compared to the beta visual search of Microsoft Bing[2][16][21] and to The Onion's microfiche iPhone app.[22] 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.[23]
In September 2011, Google announced it would discontinue a number of its products, including Google Fast Flip.[24]
See also
References
- ^ Bharat, Krishna (14 September 2009). "Read news fast with Google Fast Flip". The Official Google Blog. Google. Archived from the original on 17 September 2009. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
- ^ a b "Bing and Google launch visual search". Daily Mirror. 15 September 2009. Archived from the original on 22 September 2009. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
- ^ Boulton, Clint (15 September 2009). "Google Fast Flip is Geared to Generate More Ad Dollars". eWeek. Retrieved 21 September 2009.[permanent dead link]
- ^ a b Shiels, Maggie (15 September 2009). "Google turns page on news content". BBC News. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
- ^ Krazit, Tom (14 September 2009). "Google testing Fast Flip for Google News". CNet. Archived from the original on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
- ^ a b Bunz, Mercedes (15 September 2009). "Google's Fast Flip is for publishers". The Guardian. PDA: The Digital Content Blog. London. Archived from the original on 29 January 2016. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
- ^ a b c Allen, Katie (21 September 2009). "Google's mission to drive up newspaper revenue". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 29 January 2016. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
- ^ a b Johnson, Steve (14 September 2009). "Google news feature mimics print sources, lets people browse stories". San Jose Mercury News. Archived from the original on 27 September 2012. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
- ^ "Mobile Preview". Google Fast Flip. Archived from the original on 22 September 2009. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
- ^ "Google's Fast Flip Is Pretty Slick" [dead link] (25 September 2009). PCMike.com.
- ^ "All Sources". Google Fast Flip. Archived from the original on 22 September 2009. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
- ^ Sherman, Erik (15 September 2009). "Google Fast Flip Becomes the News Stand, Pressure on Publishers". BNet. Archived from the original on 25 September 2009. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
- ^ Smith, Stevie (16 September 2009). "Google offers swift page perusal with Fast Flip". The Tech Herald. Archived from the original on 23 September 2009. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
- ^ Taylor, Catharine P (16 September 2009). "Google's Fast Flip and the Return of Serendipitous Surfing". BNet. Archived from the original on 22 September 2009. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
- ^ Cheng, Jacqui (15 September 2009). "Hands on: limitations of Google Fast Flip make it a novelty". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on 22 September 2009. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
- ^ a b Bradley, Tony (15 September 2009). "Google Fast Flip Bridges Digital and Print Media". PC World. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
- ^ Merritt, Nick (21 September 2009). "Why Google's Fast Flip misses the point". TechRadar. Archived from the original on 22 September 2009. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
- ^ Hickins, Michael (16 September 2009). "New Google Service Nothing To Flip Over". InformationWeek. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
- ^ Mick, Jason (16 September 2009). "Is Google's Fast Flip News Service a Stud or a Dud?". DailyTech. Archived from the original on 22 September 2009. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
- ^ Coursey, David (15 September 2009). "Is Google "Fast Flip" Really Just A Slow Slider?". Tech Inciter. PC World. Archived from the original on 16 September 2009. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
- ^ Beaumont, Claudine (17 September 2009). "Microsoft Bing visual search takes fight to Google". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 23 September 2009. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
- ^ Arthur, Charles (16 September 2009). "The Onion Microfiche: all the satire that's fit to fit on your iPhone". The Guardian. Technology Blog. Archived from the original on 29 January 2016. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
- ^ "Google Fast Flip". idiomag. 27 October 2009. Archived from the original on 11 October 2009. Retrieved 28 October 2009.
- ^ Alan Eustace (2 September 2011). "A fall spring-clean". Google. Archived from the original on 7 September 2011. Retrieved 2 September 2011.
