How Flipboard Is The Epitome Of Web 3.0

Every year, Flipboard looks more and more like the future of magazines.

And along the way, it is defining what it means to be a next-generation application.

Flipboard was one of a few original news apps released near the launch of the original iPad in 2010. The app employed a clever page-turning mechanism that provided both delight and readability and allowed users to follow specific publications or build their own publications by importing their Twitter and Facebook streams.

Flipboard expanded its focus, reach and ability to monetize its product in early 2013 with Flipboard 2.0 which allowed users to specifically create their own magazines by adding a “+” to certain articles and importing photos. Flipboard partnered with publishers to create glossy (or, the Web equivalent of glossy) magazines where Flipboard and the publication could share advertising revenue.

Flipboard laid the groundwork for its next iteration earlier this year when its technologically powerful (if lightly used) competitor Zite. The Zite news reader provided the epitome of serendipity in news reading with a backend that recognized what users liked to read among a variety of topics and surfaced interesting and relevant articles from around the Web. Zite was essentially a powerful recommendation engine, like a Pandora for news.

The New Zite Backend Of Flipboard

As a company and a product, Zite was based off a search engine called Worio (Web of Research, Iteration One). Worio was essentially a recommendation engine tied to the social graph. When the search engine sputtered out as a business, Worio pivoted to Zite and embraced the coming of the iPad. When CNN bought Zite in August 2011, it was essentially the Worio recommendation engine that it wanted to implement on its websites to recommend articles tied to user interest.

“I think that the Zite technology can be really valuable to the Flipboard audience. Flipboard has a massive audience,” said Zite CEO Mark Johnson in an interview with me when Zite was acquired by Flipboard. “The problem with Zite … my bosses have always said this, I have always said this, Zite is just not in the hands of enough people. Once people get their hands on Zite they say, wow, I just can’t live without this. Our retention rates are amazing, our engagement is amazing. We never really achieved the breakout success that Flipboard had.”

Yesterday, Flipboard announced the third generation of its app and platform. Flipboard now has over 30,000 topics to follow and the app will tailor content to users interests when they follow a topic or a person. In addition, Flipboard is rolling out its own curated magazine called “ The Daily Edition” that is built both algorithmically and from Flipboard’s editors that will be available to users at 7:00 a.m. local time every day.

With Zite now in tow, Flipboard is ready to be the leader in the next generation of magazines. And in doing so, it is the epitome of Web 3.0.

The Essence Of Web 3.0

First, let’s not get tied to labels. The current era of has been called the Mobile Revolution, the Mobile Era, Web 3.0 etc. Whatever you want to call it, the Internet has fundamentally changed since the launch of the original iPhone in 2007 and the Apple App Store in 2008.

For the sake of simplicity, let’s call it Web 3.0. To make the perfect Web 3.0 app — as Flipboard has been doing — a company needs to successfully integrate at least five distinct properties:

• It is mobile first, based on apps and available on iOS, Android and through a browser.
• It integrates social media and the wisdom of the crowd.
• It provides a platform for others to build upon.
• It takes advantage of the cloud for computing, storage and sharing purposes.
• It has an element of algorithmic automation or self-service that tailors the experience to the specific user.

Only a few companies can claim to hit all of these properties on the head. Flipboard is one, music service Spotify is another. Waze, Uber, Instagram, Hotels Tonight, Evernote are all good examples of flourishing Web 3.0 apps.

Flipboard is native to Web 3.0. It launched as a mobile app specifically for the iPad before reaching out to the other mobile operating systems and the Web. It has social and sharing baked into its core from the beginning, allowing users to create their own feeds and now their own personal magazines. The “MagMakers” feature has 10 million personal magazines and Flipboard has a growing robust publisher platform.

Now with the Zite integration, Flipboard is much stronger in cloud and automation, creating a unique experience for every one of its users. The effect is one of the most advanced apps — in any category — in either Google Play or the App Store.

Flipboard & The Future Of Magazines

Depending on whom you ask, the future of publishing is either completely borked or approaching its golden age. The answer usually depends on the stakeholder as old media that have seen their businesses erode will complain while new media that has embraced all the aspects of Web 3.0 rejoice.

Flipboard is the model of the next generation. It takes advantage of the fact that the Web now produces more information everyday than had been created through most of human history before 1999. Flipboard then packages that information to inform and delight users wherever they are, on whatever device they are using. For all its background complexity, Flipboard’s product is egalitarian, elegant and simple.

Lead image: Flipboard CEO Mike McCue speaking at a ReadWrite Mix event by Ken Yeung, Flickr Creative Commons. Used with permission.

Originally published at arc.applause.com on October 30, 2014.