Flipboard style mobile app coming from Facebook?

A published report on Sunday says that Facebook is working on a project called Reader, which will take content from Facebook users and publish it in a new format for mobile devices. With more than 1.1 billion users, the public company is seeking to garner more revenue from the mobile space, especially since mobile ads are bringing in big cash for those who can provide the eyeballs that advertisers are looking for. The project has been in development for more than a year and it is said to resemble news aggregation app Flipboard, with users swiping to read content from various sources. Former Apple employee and current Facebook designer Michael Matas is said to be in charge of designing Reader, which will have to compete with sites like Flipboard which boasts 50 million users.

With the recent introduction of hashtags and the re-design earlier this year of the Facebook news-feed, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that he wants the site to be "the best personalized newspaper in the world." Facebook's mobile users now usually pop in now and then for a brief look at their individual page. Offering a new app that would bring together Facebook content could allow for a longer perusal from users and enable the social networking company to procure more mobile advertising dollars. At present, about one-third of the company's revenue comes from mobile.

According to those familiar with the project, Facebook's developers are working on a version of Reader for iOS. The app is designed for both the Apple iPhone and Apple iPad and the idea is to get users interested in reading public posts that are trending so that they spend more time reading the story on Facebook.

source: WSJ