Facebook Paper Re-Imagines the News Reader
Posted by socialeyez on August 5th, 2014
Facebook is providing iOS mobile app users with a new way to get news and a glimpse of its new business strategy with the launch of its first product from its new business unit, Facebook Creative Labs.
Called Facebook Paper, this iOS-only mobile app is more than just a simple news aggregator. Using a combination of human- and algorithm-curated content, Facebook Paper enables users to design their own personal digital newspaper based on categories they select and content that is published on Facebook from a wide variety of sources. The big difference between Facebook Paper and news readers such as Flipboard, Pulse, and Prismatic is that Paper provides actively reviewed and curated -- not just aggregated – content, much like a traditional magazine or newspaper.
One of the things that makes Paper different from other Facebook products is that it’s a new stand-alone app, not another add-on to the familiar Facebook environment. This is viewed as part of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s new business strategy to return to the good old days when Facebook was a smaller and more flexible entity, capable of moving quickly and decisively.
Zuckerberg recently revealed that Facebook, through its nimble, small-team-oriented Facebook Creative Labs, will be developing single-purpose, stand-alone apps for the mobile marketplace. This move is seen by industry experts as a way for the social network giant to better compete with other content providers and micro-blogging services such as Twitter.
How Paper works
Facebook Paper is basically a simpler and more intuitive way to receive and browse Facebook content on an iPhone (it’s not yet available for iPad or Windows and Android devices). An audio-video tutorial walks the user through set-up and helps them add content categories such as headlines, sports, food, and business to the tile-based interface. It then delivers content picked by human and digital curators based on Facebook popularity that can be manipulated using familiar swipes, taps, and pinching.
Paper offers a flexible functionality enabling users to discover content from a wide variety of new and even surprising sources, not just friends’ posts or subscription content. Even more interesting is the ability it provides users to post their own stories that can be reviewed by editors and deemed worthy of actively sharing with the greater Paper population. This feature alone could make Paper a key tool for content marketers.
About The Author:
Social Eyez is a Dubai based renowned social media consultancy, providing expert consultation and solutions for social media engagement, by monitoring and analysing business’ social media activities. Headquarter of Social – Eyez is in the UAE with branches around the world.
