Today, we dig into the nitty-gritty of Surf, a new app by Flipboard. We document what it is, how it works, and areas where the experience could be improved.
“I wish everyone could see my browsing habits” said nobody ever.
That’s not what this is. It’s more of a feed aggregator / reader with social features, framed as a browser of sorts.
The main thing it’s used for is feed curation and content discovery. You can basically use anything with a feed as a source, then aggregate and filter things.
It’s kind of like a news reader version of Yahoo Pipes almost.
Probably true. I don’t see anything like that in the article, though?
There already is a browser named Surf, and has been for two decades.
Good to know. I have an inkling that this probably slipped under the radar when the SurfApp team were looking at branding and trademarks. Despite the fact that Suckless projects tend to have a somewhat popular following in the *nix community, it’s probably pretty obscure anywhere else.
Yeah, no surprise there, I found it only by pure luck, but suckless has been my jam for over a decade.
Is it related to the browser NetSurf?
Unfortunately not
I was going to try it out, and then the website asked me for my email :(
I don’t want a feed aggregator that has its own account, I want one that just lets me use my existing network/feed-specific accounts.
I imagine (/hope) that the email-for-signup is only while the software is in alpha/beta/unreleased, to help them get user feedback.
I can confirm that the email is only for sending out an invite, for downloading the beta version. You just use your existing MastoAPI-enabled Fediverse account.
Do you maybe mind sharing your APK with VirusTotal score so that people who want to try it can do so without giving their email away?
So what I take away after a quick skim on xmas eve is… this is an attempt at one app for all (or big parts) of the fediverse?
Kind of. It doesn’t do everything, but it could be a killer app for custom feeds and discovery in the Fediverse. It’s still in Beta, and feels a little underdeveloped, but it’s a promising proof-of-concept.
[sorry, a Lemmy bug made me reply to the wrong comment]
No worries. Given the season, surely it’s the recurring Bahhum bug.
Maybe it’s this one, maybe it’s the next one, but I do think these are the types of solutions to several fediverse problems from either new user or experienced user that has some levels of expected functionality in a client that browses “social media feeds”.
other side of the coin is that the do Everything apps made by single for profit entity means there will build incentive to attack it, copy it, etc. and all that info can be compromised…
