Google’s New Ads Centre, Fast Flip

Google Labs unveiled an innovative new tool called Fast Flip. At first glance it appears similar to Bing Visual Search which was also unleashed yesterday. However, snazzy interface aside, Fast Flip isn't about eye candy or changing the way users search. Fast Flip is about helping print media adapt to the Internet age (and making a few dollars in the process).

Google has teamed up with 36 publishers for the initial rollout. Users who visit the Fast Flip site are greeted with large thumbnail images of various articles sorted by their source, topic, or current popularity. That initial page seems at least a little like Bing Visual Search, but the similarities end there.

Once you click on an article Fast Flip lets you flip through the pages as if you were flipping through a traditional print magazine or newspaper. Google feels that recreating the print media experience online will attract more readers and help its partner publishers transition more smoothly to delivering information over the Internet.

Fast Flip is not an experiment in altruism though. Google plans to make money and share that revenue with the publishers it partners with. Fast Flip pages are not bogged down with multimedia content and multiple ad banners. They are streamlined to load quickly (hence the "fast" part of Fast Flip).