Google has introduced a new Labs item dubbed "Fast Flip," which continues the company's quest to speed up your life. Fast Flip tries to encompass the advantages of reading both printed and online articles. In a post on Google's official blog, Distinguished Researcher Krishna Bharat calls the service a "new reading experience" and describes the pitfalls of reading Web-based news.
He says that a media-rich page loads dozens of files, which can take as long as 10 seconds over broadband. Bharat added that we need a way to flip through articles quickly without unnatural delays, "Imagine taking 10 seconds to turn the page of a print magazine!" Google's service attempts to remedy this by allowing users to browse sequentially through bundles of recent news, headlines and popular topics.
Naturally, as the name implies, flipping through content is indeed fast – sort of. Scrolling through pages is zippy, but I have to question Fast Flip's effectiveness versus typical text-based headline aggregators. I think the latter is more appropriate for news junkies or those who need to skim hundreds of headlines in a short window – like myself. That said, I could see casual readers thoroughly enjoying Fast Flip.
Check it out and be sure to leave us your thoughts.