Photo used under a Creative Commons license by flickr user <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwichary/" target="_blank">Marcin Wichary</a>
First, Google announced a plan to help newspapers microcharge for online content. Now, it’s launching a news aggregator, Fast Flip, that will share ad revenue with participating news organizations.
This is a momentous olive branch on the part of Google, considering the flak it got for not sharing revenue from its flagship Google News. It will be especially beneficial if Fast Flip, an appealing interface that allows users to “flip” through tailored news content, takes off. Said a Google spokesperson to the Nieman Journalism Lab:
Google’s interest here is in trying to be a good partner to the news industry and to quality providers of news and try to frankly find ways to help publishers get more out of the web.
Google and the news industry, BFF? Stay tuned.
