Flipboard has introduced a new feature called social websites, designed to help publishers and creators build their own spaces on the web. These websites bring together conversations happening across decentralized platforms like Mastodon and Bluesky, as well as other public content online.
Social websites allow creators to consolidate posts, videos, podcasts, newsletters, and more into a single hub they control. Profiles and content from platforms like Bluesky, Mastodon, Threads, YouTube, blogs, podcasts, and RSS feeds can all be integrated, giving audiences a unified experience.
Flipboard sees this as a new model for social media, where communities have more ownership over how content is organized. “Social websites help podcasters, creators, and publications build communities around their work and control the experience, including the algorithm,” Flipboard CEO Mike McCue said. “Rather than starting a community from scratch, creators can bring together the people and conversations already happening around their podcasts, videos, and newsletters.”
This launch marks the first web-based expansion of Surf, Flipboard’s reader app that lets users explore the open social web. Social websites are powered by Surf feeds, which users can set up by signing in at surf.social and creating a feed. The process involves adding sources, assigning a community hashtag, and customizing filters.
Once a feed is set up, owners can assign a custom domain to turn it into a social website that can be shared across the web. Flipboard plans to expand customization options, including custom headers, colors, and additional feed management tools.
Already, publishers like The Verge, Wired, Rolling Stone, 404 Media, and The Oregonian, as well as creators like David Rushing with his NBA-focused site All Net, are using social websites to centralize content and engage communities more effectively.
By combining content from multiple platforms into a single destination, Flipboard’s social websites aim to make it easier for creators and audiences to stay connected and engaged across the open social web.
