Flipboard launches personalized, shareable magazine feature
Flipboard, a news aggregation app released back in 2010, is deservedly popular. The software聽allows users to sift through, sort, and collate articles and photos from a wide variety of sites. It acts as聽a supplement to more traditional news sources such as newspapers and online magazines.听
So here's to a bit of good news for all the Flipboard fanatics out there: Beginning this week, Flipboard will allow users to create and share their own personal "magazines," which can then be shared with other users. In other words, with a few swipes of the finger, or a few taps on the mouse, you can become your very own David Remnick. Or Anna Wintour. Or .听
"Just tap the +聽button next to articles, pick a name for your magazine, add a description and start flipping," reps for Flipboard on the company blog. "You can create as many magazines as you want 鈥� My Picks, The SF Giants, Wedding Inspiration, Things to Read Later 鈥� and draw from virtually any source on Flipboard, including what鈥檚 being shared on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SoundCloud, LinkedIn and Tumblr."
Flipboard says in coming weeks, it will choose some of the best user-generated creations, and slap them up on the Flipboard blog. (On a side note, we聽might be able to imagine a personalized publication comprised solely of Twitter or Instagram or even SoundCloud posts.听But a personalized magazine culled from LinkedIn updates? Far from聽scintillating, in our humble opinion.)聽
Of course, as Mathew Ingram in a smart article over at PaidContent, it isn't just Ordinary Joe users that'll have the chance to make their own publications 鈥� advertisers and marketers will, too.听
"[O]ne overlooked element of the launch is that Flipboard is building e-commerce functionality into the app," Mr. Ingram writes. "Chief technology officer Eric Feng said some advertisers are already creating their own magazines using both their own ads and content from other sources. Those magazines could then be selected and highlighted by Flipboard鈥檚 algorithms just like any other effort by a Flipboard user."聽
For聽more tech news, follow us on聽.
