San Francisco -- Google Inc. is testing a new format that is supposed to make reading online stories as easy as flipping through a magazine, a shift that eventually could feed more advertising sales to revenue-starved publishers.
Google knows a lot about the future of news -- more than many publishers. It's evident in Google's new product, Fast Flip, which allows news consumers to "flip" through news stories. What's striking about Fast Flip is that Google is innovating precisely where publishers used to lead innovation.
Hotels in New York, Miami, and Turks & Caicos are now offering guests Sony Readers for loan. New York's storied Algonquin Hotel, meanwhile, already offers Amazon's Kindle.