Propelling its entry into the social world, after Google+, search engine giant, Google is now, reportedly, working on a digital social-news magazine that will be accessible on the iPad and Android devices.
Digital pundit and blogger Robert Scoble said in his post on Google+, on Wednesday, that one of his sources described the product as “mind-blowing good.”
Though Google representatives refused to comment on the matter, AllThingsD confirmed the news and said that according to numerous sources close to the situation, Google is indeed working on rolling out the new product, which is currently called Propeller.
People in the know expect Propeller to be a stiff competitor to Flipboard, the popular and stylish looking social magazine which was launched in 2010.
Flipboard has been named by Apple as the ‘App of the year’ and Time magazine featured it in its annual top 50 innovations. The tablet app which sees 3.5 million downloads and 550 million monthly flips has an investment of $ 60 million. Funders for Flipboard include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Index Ventures, Insight Venture Partners, and Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz. The popular social magazine is also looking to launch on the iPhone.
Apparently, Google had expressed its desire to acquire Flipboard, last year, but its offer was declined. It is believed that Google told Flipboard executives, that if it could not buy, it planned to come up with a version of its own.
There is a lot of activity in the social publishing arena currently. AOL’s Editions which was launched in August, Zite which was acquired recently by CNN for an estimated $ 20 million, Yahoo’s Livestand and Pulse are competing with each other and Flipboard for a place of pride.
Social media giant, Facebook, too, is making social versions of publications available within its site. When you visit that publication’s page within Facebook, you will be able to see a personalized and reformatted version of the latest news.
Social magazines are popular because they can be personalized according to a reader’s interests. It can have real-time content feed from sources like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, as well as RSS feeds from numerous Web sites and publications. Social magazines are quickly becoming an attractive proposition for brands as is evidenced by Flipboard. The social magazine started with Conde Nast paid ads and in July American Express launched its first campaign. The October issues of Wired, The New Yorker and Bon Appetit will be seeing Lexus ads.
Sources say that apart from Propeller, Google has other announcements which are socially focused, including new apps. However, the launch date for the social magazine as well as the other apps is not clear.