Comparing The New Facebook App Paper To Flipboard

facebook Flipboard

As we all remember since our childhood days a few decades ago it was the battle of who was going to deliver the fastest news so that they could capture all the eye balls around the internet looking for news and updates around latest happenings .Then it became of a battle of how news can be made easily available through technology enabled apps to stay updated with real time information leading to adding RSS feeds to alert people on information posted.

As times changed, then came the mobile outburst where people wanted to stay updated on the latest news in a manner where consumption of information became easier giving rise to news aggregator sites like Google reader which eventually shut down and Pulse which was sold to LinkedIn.

Finally we have applications that we use today like Flipboard, Zite, Google news etc to read our day to day important news making consumption easier at our finger tips.

If we look at this pattern closely, we can clearly understand that today everybody doesn’t want to read everything around the web and people don’t want to read something which is outside their sphere of interest and waste time.

Agree with me?

Today the world is moving towards a more personalized and interest centric approach which mobile applications are enabling efficiently and what makes these apps different than any specific newspaper’s specific app is that they present stories from a range of sources giving you the best from all the sources.

A few weeks ago, Facebook unveiled its own reader app – Paper to broaden its mobile offerings and make information curation easier and consumption simpler. The app mixes curated news feeds with an individual’s Facebook timeline to create a platform that integrates news discovery and sharing into your timeline.

Paper is more than a simple news reader, noting that the first thing a user sees when they load the app is the News Feed while they can share, “Like,” and comment on stories. The app is aiming at connecting people through common interests and telling people about what stories they need to pay attention to by increasing interaction among them. Simply put Paper is an application which works with a content curation approach.

Flipboard on the other hand pulls out photos from various sources to display a highly visual reading experience and with channels arranged by topics like “News” and “Technology.” Flipboard goes further into making the experience very personal by allowing you to create your own channels on topics, or from news sources or even from your friends on Facebook or Twitter.

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The app shows up headlines and photos tempered by what your friends are sharing on social networks, and the sources of news you’ve previously favored and interacted in the past. Unlike Paper, Flipboard works on a content aggregation approach and with its customized RSS, topic-based feeds and themed magazines, places importance on personalization first, discovery second.

Comparing Flipboard and Paper

  • Paper puts news discovery first and personalization second while telling users what stories they should pay attention to while Flipboard puts personalization first and discovery second .
  • Paper limits your news feeds section to 10 when compared to unlimited news feeds section offered by Flipboard which are well categorized.
  • Flipboard ultimately gives users most of the control by allowing them pick and choose the sources and topics they see while Paper controls the sources and automatically chooses which sections are of interest giving the user no control over which stories or sources they see.
  • Flipboard, users can pull in updates from a range of social media, including Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and LinkedIn, and share the news they find on any connected social network while Paper only integrates with Facebook and sharing is limited to your Facebook friends.
  • Flipboard is great as an aggregator to collect all the news you want to read from the sources you like and Paper is more of a Facebook app than a “news” app which is best suited for those looking to share and discover content with friends.


As the battle continues to make information more consumable and tailor made for the interests of each and every individual, we can easily conclude that today personalization is the buzzword everybody in the industry is striving hard to achieve for great success.


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