By cryptoadmin 
The corporate behind the information app Flipboard simply launched one thing known as Surf, which is kind of like an RSS feed for the open social net. The app permits customers to create feeds that pull from the open social net, together with providers like Mastodon and Bluesky. It additionally sources content material from blogs, podcasts and YouTube movies.
Flipboard CEO Mike McCue calls it a “browser for the social net” and that description makes an entire lot of sense. Surf helps an entire bunch of open protocols, together with RSS, Bluesky’s AT Protocol and ActivityPub. That final one is used to energy decentralized platforms like Mastodon, Threads, Pixelfed, PeerTube and Friendica, amongst others. This follows Flipboard itself shifting to the fediverse, which allowed for full interoperability with Mastodon and different decentralized networks.
The app has been in improvement for almost two years and lets customers construct customized feeds utilizing a mix of sources. In case you needed to observe a distinct segment subject like, say, 3D printing, you might add notable individuals to a feed, together with hashtags, particular RSS feeds, most popular podcasts and extra. As of the preliminary beta launch, Surf comes with 30,000 predefined matters to discover. Customized feeds can even discover a number of matters directly, to personalize issues.
The app’s dwelling web page features a huge swath of curated feeds to observe which can be organized into sections like Featured, Trending, Communities and Skilled Voices. Feeds are configurable in a lot of methods, which lets customers embody or exclude stuff like replies, reposts or mature content material. Fortunately, the order of the feed can be totally adjustable, with an choice for a Twitter-like timeline.
This sounds fairly cool proper? One of many fundamental issues on this new period of the social net, wherein the previous guard has misplaced a lot steam, is the shortage of a centralized hub. This seems to resolve that drawback to some extent.
Now a spot of dangerous information. Surf is technically accessible proper now, however solely as an invite-only, closed beta. In case you can come up with a type of invitations, the app is offered for each iOS and Android, with a desktop shopper coming quickly.
This text initially appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/flipboard-just-launched-surf-which-is-sort-of-like-an-rss-feed-for-the-open-social-web-184015833.html?src=rss