Flipboard launches new edition, lets readers create magazines

Social magazine app Flipboard launched on Tuesday one of its biggest overhauls to date allowing readers to create and share their own magazines in a bid to keep growing in popularity.

The app is letting readers customize their own content around topics, events, and personal interests that can be shared with others.

It also partnered with Etsy, the online bazaar for handmade goods, allowing users to shop from Flipboard.

“It’s the largest thing we have ever done,” said Flipboard co-founder and CEO Mike McCue about the new edition.

“We want to allow people to curate the content they love.”

Flipboard is the latest social media company trying to entice people with the lure of creating and sharing interests along the same lines as fast-growing online scrapbook Pinterest, which lets people “pin” items on a virtual bulletin board.

Even Facebook changed its popular newsfeed in March giving more prominence to photos and videos in an effort to make the social network more of a personalized newspaper.

With more than 50 million downloads, Flipboard is a popular app among people who use it as a one-stop place for reading a variety of articles from different sources. It makes money by sharing revenue with its partners who sell ads on Flipboard.

But publishers are also keeping a close eye on the start up. Conde Nast, for instance, which is a partner of Flipboard pulled back the reins with some of its titles – The New Yorker and Wired – in order to keep guard over its content. Flipboard users will see an excerpted summary sending readers to the New Yorker and Wired websites.

Flipboard launched in July 2010 with much fan fair because of the clean and refined way it presented articles. Users choose from publishing sources ranging from The New York Times to Vanity Fair mixing stories with feeds from social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The content is then formatted into one easy-to-read publication with ads that are similar to those found in the pages of glossy titles.

The Palo Alto, California-based company raised $60.5 million from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byer, Index Ventures, and Insight Venture Partners and investors like Ashton Kutcher.

source: interaksyon.com

Etsy blocks sales of drugs and human remains

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Etsy has become the go-to spot for homemade jewelry, knickknacks and household goods. Apparently, some have also been using the online marketplace to sell everything from drugs to human remains.

Now Etsy is cracking down.

The online marketplace recently revised its policies, excluding from its list of sellable items such products as tobacco, hazardous materials and body parts. (Hair and teeth are still OK).

"Odd as it may sound, we've spent long hours over the past several months extensively researching some offbeat and fascinating topics, from issues surrounding the sale of human bones to the corrosive and toxic properties of mercury," the company wrote on its official blog on Wednesday.

Etsy says the changes are made in order to comply with legal rules and restrictions.

"But beyond that, when it comes right down to it, some things just aren't in the spirit of Etsy," the online company wrote. "While we understand that it is possible for certain items to be carefully and legally bought and sold, Etsy is just not the right venue for them."

The new policy prohibits the sale of human body parts, including but not limited to "things such as skulls, bones, articulated skeletons, bodily fluids, preserved tissues or organs, and other similar products."

Etsy banned most drug paraphernalia, though the company said it is not explicitly banning the sale of medical drugs. Instead, it's asking that sellers remove any claims of "cure or relief of a health condition or illness."

That set off a slew of angry posts from Etsy sellers in the company's public forums.

"Now I need to change near[ly] a quarter of my listings or remove them," wrote Etsy user Chrissy-jo, who operates an online store called KindredImages. "How am I going explain the use of a salve or even an aromatherapy eye pillow without making the claim that it aids in healing wounds or it helps relieve migraines?"

Another Etsy user named Irina, who runs PheonixBotanicals, wrote: "As an herbal crafter, I find the idea of being banned from listing traditional uses and folklore of plants quite disheartening."

Sellers on Etsy operate their own shops, where they vend goods that are usually homemade. The online store plans to reach out to individual sellers to ask them to either remove a problematic listing or make changes to align with the company's policy.

source: CNN