Google News Fast Flip feature on Google Labs
Google Labs is testing Fast Flip, a new Google News feature that lets readers glance at article snapshots and browse easily through them, share stories with friends and click on snapshots to access to actual magazine and newspaper web pages.
Is Google Fast Flip the Last Newsstand?
Fast Flip reflects our content consumption behavior in front of a newsstand, when we look at lined up magazines and newspapers before picking one for a more in depth look.
Captured images are arranged in tabs grouped in different category views: Popular, Sections, Topics and Sources. The Recommended tab in the Popular category shows articles that users shared with friends and publicly recommended by clicking on the “Like” button.
You can expand categories and click on tabs listed in them to see web page snapshots. Clicking on a thumbnail takes you to a page with a zoomed snapshot of the featured article, with arrows on the left and on the right sides of the screen to flip through other article snapshots as you were flipping through print magazine pages.
If you want to read the entire article, you just have to click on the captured image and you will be redirected to its actual website.
Why advertising on Fast Flip won’t work
Contextual relevant advertisement revenues are shared with publishers who choose to partner in the program. In my personal experience while testing Fast Flip, as a reader I tend to treat “contextually relevant ads” as out of context items: the snapshot itself is an image of a page you look at a glance, showing interesting content traditionally surrounded by a header and sidebars; ads on Fast Flip would be outside this first level frame, and CTR would rely highly on accidental clicks caused by the proximity of the right arrow.
Moreover, the concept of Fast Flip is based on the assumption of an existing overload of (un)interesting content, which makes fast page flipping a naturally desirable response. You click through to read the article on the publisher’s website only if it’s really interesting to you.
On another note, publishers could benefit from the opportunity to introduce new readers to their content and click through rate could be improved by testing different web designs for better CTR on Fast Flip (hint: no sidebars).
Attracting new readers would finally result in higher revenues on actual magazine or newspaper websites: this is how Google is planning to help publishers.
Personalized Fast Flip results and stories shared with friends
Clicking on the Like button counts as a public vote for the story to be included in the Recommended section, but if you are signed in to your Google Account, you can also access to the recommendations of your Gmail contacts.
To enable personalized results with suggested sections and news sources, Google collects information like the stories you read or recommend, and ties it to your Google Account.
Why you should check out Google Fast Flip now!
- It is fast: The main advantage of Google Fast Flip is that captured snapshots of websites load very quickly compared to pages that usually load elements that slow the process, like rich media content and advertisements.
- It’s fun: Quick browsing through articles you can pick and recommend at a glance, make Fast Flip’s interface very user friendly and enjoyable.
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