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Google's
NRI Researcher, help readers to read news fast
with Google Fast Flip through news sites
Google News
Krishna Bharat
Sep. 14, 2009
One problem with reading news online today is that browsing can
be really slow. A media-rich page loads dozens of files and can
take as much as 10 seconds to load over broadband, which can be
frustrating. What we need instead is a way to flip through articles
really fast without unnatural delays, just as we can in print. The
flow should feel seamless and let you rapidly flip forward to the
content you like, without the constant wait for things to load.
Imagine taking 10 seconds to turn the page of a print magazine!
Today we're adding a new experiment to Google Labs: Google Fast
Flip, accessible at fastflip.googlelabs.com. Fast Flip 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.
To build Google Fast Flip, we partnered with three dozen top publishers,
including the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Washington Post,
Salon, Fast Company, ProPublica and Newsweek. These partners will
share the revenue earned from contextually relevant ads. This gives
publishers an opportunity to introduce new readers to their content.
It also tests our theory that being able to read articles faster
means people will read more of them, driving more ad revenue to
publishers.
The publishing industry faces many challenges today, and there
is no magic bullet. However, we believe that encouraging readers
to read more news is a necessary part of the solution. We think
Fast Flip could be one way to help, and we're looking to find other
ways to help as well in the near future.
We've also made a mobile version of Fast Flip 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.
Go to Google Labs and give Fast Flip a spin. If you have suggestions
to make the service better, please let us know. We'll keep working
on new ways to improve your news-reading experience. Happy flipping!......googleblog.blogspoT
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