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If you’re exhausted trying to keep track of multiple social media apps and interests, you now have a new way to bring your connections together. Flipboard, a popular social magazine app, Surf launched on Thursday.
Surf reminds me of the time when we used to use RSS feeds to keep up with our interests. In short, it’s a fast and streamlined way to browse and explore the web on mobile or desktop.
Your Surf collects social media posts, videos, podcasts, and conversations in a feed-like style. So, if you’re interested in politics, Rolling Stone Politics’ Surf site may offer you related posts from Blueskyrepost from Wired and original posts created on Surf.
How does Surf work?
Visit Browse.Social And create an account. You can check feeds from other communities, create your own feeds and connect with people who share similar interests. Surf lets you embed sources from many social media platforms, including Bluesky, TopicsYouTube and Mastodon. You can also include sources from podcast services, blogs, and newsletters.
Surf also has a search engine in demo mode. When I searched for Pilates, for example, the feed was organized to include related posts and articles — and it also highlighted people who had contributed to the feed so I could see more of their content, if I chose. Popular topics, such as Survivor 50 and NintendoAlso available.
Surf lets you search for personalized feeds based on your interests, like cooking or technology.
Uniting communities
“Social media helps podcasters, creators and publications build communities around their work and control the experience, including the algorithm,” said Mike McCue, CEO of Flipboard and Surf, in a statement. McCue says content creators can use social media to bring people together and conversations that are already happening.
“Instead of starting a community from scratch, creators can use social media to easily bring together the people and conversations already happening around their podcasts, videos and newsletters across the social web,” he said.
There is one clear difference between Surf and other popular social media platforms. Surf says that each website is powered by a feed and controlled by the content creator. This cuts out the noise of other topics you may not be interested in, which may be a relief in a time when Facebook has taken to filling your feed with groups and posts you never asked for.
Surf app is available in beta on Google Play It will be available on the Apple App Store by the end of April. Surf won’t be out of beta mode for another six to nine months, a Surf representative said in an email to CNET. Users can also access Surf via the web.
You won’t need social media apps to create a Surf profile, but you will see that many reposts come from other social media profiles. I wouldn’t say it’s a replacement for Instagram or Facebook, but it could be a good addition if you want a dedicated space to delve into others or connect with them about certain topics.
Flipboard also says there are other updates coming, including headers, colors, and custom feed management. A Surf representative says to expect more features by summer, including pro tools for outlets that want to offer perks to members.