Flipboard launched Surf on Thursday, a platform that lets users create personalized feeds aggregating posts, podcasts, videos, and content from platforms like Bluesky, Threads, Mastodon, and YouTube. The service functions as customizable 'social websites' to simplify the decentralized social web. Creators can control their communities without relying on mainstream platforms.
Flipboard, known for its social news reading app, introduced Surf at Surf.social, where users can create accounts, scan existing feeds, or build their own. These social websites pull together content from decentralized platforms, RSS feeds, blogs, newsletters, and podcast services into a single, feed-style interface. A beta search engine curates related posts, and trending topics like Survivor 50 and Nintendo appear prominently. Surf also highlights contributors for further exploration. Examples include Rolling Stone's politics site featuring Bluesky posts, Wired reposts, and original content, as well as David Rushing's 'All Net' for NBA fans, blending Bluesky, Threads, Mastodon, and YouTube clips. Fans can join conversations in one space. Flipboard CEO Mike McCue described the goal: 'Social websites help podcasters, creators and publications build communities around their work and control the experience, including the algorithm.' He added that creators can unite existing conversations across the social web rather than starting from scratch. McCue told Engadget, 'The social web is really promising... but it is kind of complex... What we're trying to do is actually make it [so] like in 15 minutes you can make one of these communities.' The Surf app is in beta on Google Play and will launch on the Apple App Store by late April, with full release in six to nine months. Web access is available now, and updates like custom headers, pro tools for publishers, and feed management are planned for summer. Currently, about ten publisher sites exist, but anyone can create one.
