Flipboard’s Surf App Is A Big New Idea About The Future Of Social

Mike McCue, nan CEO of Flipboard and an nett entrepreneur since nan Netscape days, is simply a existent believer successful nan fediverse. He doesn’t emotion nan word: he’d overmuch alternatively telephone it “the societal web.” But immoderate you want to telephone nan open, decentralized, interconnected societal networking acquisition that apps for illustration Mastodon and Bluesky promise, McCue is perfectly convinced it’s nan future.

For nan past twelvemonth aliases so, McCue and his squad personification been wholly overhauling nan Flipboard level to make it a information of nan societal web. Once nan alteration is done, Flipboard will beryllium a afloat decentralized measurement to observe and publication worldly from crossed nan internet. The process seems to beryllium going fine, though it doesn’t look poised to return complete nan fediverse nan measurement Threads could if it afloat opened up.

At nan aforesaid time, though, nan Flipboard squad has been moving connected point moreover bigger. That point is an app called Surf (not to beryllium confused pinch nan different precocious launched Surf), which McCue called “the world’s first browser for nan societal web.” He first said that to maine a mini complete a twelvemonth ago, erstwhile Surf was mostly conscionable a bunch of mock-ups and a descent deck. Now, nan app has been successful beta for nan past less months — I’ve been utilizing it astir of that clip — and a nationalist beta is launching today. Not everyone tin get in; McCue says he wants to bring successful immoderate curators and creators first, successful bid for location to beryllium tons of worldly successful Surf erstwhile everyone different gets access. And he promises that’s coming soon.

But wait, sorry, backmost to nan afloat “browser for nan societal web” thing. McCue’s champion mentation of Surf’s ample mentation is this: successful a decentralized societal world, nan nett will beryllium small astir websites and overmuch astir feeds. “You won’t put in, like, theverge.com and spell to nan website for The Verge, but you tin put successful ‘the verge’ and spell to nan ActivityPub provender for The Verge.” Your Threads timeline is simply a feed; each Bluesky Starter Pack is simply a feed; each creator you recreation is conscionable producing a provender of content.   

Surf’s job, successful that world, is to thief you observe and investigation each those feeds. The app tin spot 3 kinds of feeds: point from ActivityPub, which intends things for illustration Mastodon and Threads and Pixelfed; point from AT Protocol, which intends Bluesky; and immoderate RSS feed. You tin hunt for feeds by topic, publisher, aliases creator; you tin curate your ain feeds by combining different feeds. And past you tin banal those feeds, which different group tin harvester and recombine. It’s each a mini confusing. Just ideate a nicely designed, vertically scrolling feed, location betwixt a Twitter timeline and nan Apple News homepage.

A provender tin beryllium made up of almost immoderate benignant of content, which presents a tricky creation problem for Surf. It has to beryllium arsenic adept arsenic a societal network, a news app, a video platform, and a podcast player. Combining each that worldly into 1 spot isn’t conscionable nan goal; it’s nan afloat point. And it’s very difficult to do each of those things well.

Personally, nan astir eye-opening infinitesimal successful my clip testing Surf has been nan measurement nan app lets you automatically prime a feed. I group up a provender that’s conscionable each my favourite stuff: my go-to podcasts, must-read blogs, a mates of can’t-miss YouTube channels, and my favourite folks connected Bluesky. I tin unfastened that provender and spot everything, successful order, nary matter what it is aliases who it came from. But I tin too prime it to conscionable show each nan videos successful nan provender aliases pat connected “Listen” to move it into a podcast queue. 

Surf isn’t yet a full-featured app for immoderate of these uses, overmuch small each of them, but it’s already a beautiful useful app for each kinds of media. It presents videos for illustration an endlessly scrolling TikTok feed, which is really a beautiful nosy measurement to flip done a YouTube channel. Posts pinch links are formatted for illustration news stories, pinch ample images and headlines. It’s not a peculiarly dense timeline-scrolling experience, either — the afloat constituent is overmuch for illustration Flipboard’s flippy magazines than nan For You pages we’re utilized to.

Because it’s trying to compile a bunch of disparate platforms into one, hunt tin beryllium messy — I recovered 5 profiles pinch my punishment and picture, for instance, and it’s not evident which 1 is nan 1 you’re looking for. Surf is too designed to beryllium interactive, but correct now, that beautiful overmuch only useful if you’re a Mastodon personification liking Mastodon posts. For astir different things, it’s either benignant of room aliases wholly broken. For now, and astir apt for a while, Surf is going to beryllium overmuch amended arsenic a depletion instrumentality than a societal one.

McCue sees nan societal web arsenic nan opening of an wholly caller internet. He moreover uses old-web metaphors to explicate these early products: nan existent era we’re successful is for illustration AOL backmost successful nan day, “a walled crippled that contained each nan invention successful nan walled garden”; Surf is for illustration old-school Yahoo, “a postulation of feeds that different group personification made.” He wants to alteration paid feeds, truthful publishers, creators, and curators tin make money connected nan platform. He has ample ideas astir civilization designs for feeds, truthful they tin look overmuch for illustration homepages. 

There’s an atrocious batch adjacent to build — not to mention a batch of protocols and devices adjacent to personification each nan internet’s platforms and publishers to activity with. But I’ve been talking to McCue astir this for 2 years now, and his condemnation and optimism haven’t wavered a bit. When I show him that I decidedly wavered — that I was erstwhile each successful connected ActivityPub arsenic nan early but americium worried seeing Bluesky move connected different protocol and proceeding immoderate of nan issues Threads and others are having pinch ActivityPub — he conscionable laughs. One, he says, that’s really it ever goes successful these early phases. Two, that’s what Surf is meant to fix.

To beryllium his point, McCue opens up a provender afloat of hoops content, created by David Rushing. Rushing was a ample fig successful early NBA Threads, a statement that has splintered acknowledgment to immoderate of Threads’ moderation and statement policies. Now, group are posting pinch #nbathreads connected Bluesky and elsewhere, too. It’s messy. But Surf, McCue says, tin bring it backmost together. He starts scrolling Rushing’s civilization feed: “You’re seeing Bluesky posts, Mastodon posts, Threads posts, Flipboard posts, point pinch nan hashtag #nbathreads crossed nan afloat societal web. If you position a podcast, if you position a YouTube video, point pinch nan hashtag #nbathreads, it’ll show up successful this feed.” Rushing tin adhd aliases region individual posts aliases moreover usage Flipboard’s filtering systems to get free of point that feels political, mentions gambling, aliases immoderate different he wants to do. 

McCue is practically giddy arsenic he scrolls done each this hoops content. This is nan afloat thing, correct here. “Ultimately,” he says, “you’re conscionable not going to attraction whether point is connected Threads — I don’t represent you a abstracted benignant of email because you’re connected Gmail, right?” People will usage tons of apps, location will beryllium tons of communities, and that’s good. “There are nerds connected Bluesky, location are nerds connected Threads. How tin each nan nerds stitchery together?” That’s nan mobility for nan fediverse — sorry, nan societal web — and Surf looks for illustration it mightiness beryllium nan champion reply anyone’s recreation up pinch truthful far.