Flipboard has announced a new product called social websites. This gives creators and publishers a way to build their own spaces on the web. These sites gather conversations and content already happening across the open social web, including platforms like Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads, and YouTube. Creators can consolidate posts, videos, podcasts, and newsletters into a single destination they control.
Flipboard CEO Mike McCue says this model offers more ownership, allowing communities to organize content. It extends the company’s Surf app, which browses the open social web. Users create a feed on surf.social by adding sources and a community hashtag, then can assign a custom domain to create their shareable social website.
Several publishers like The Verge, Wired, and Rolling Stone have already launched social websites. Creator David Rushing also built All Net, a hub for NBA fans. Flipboard plans to add more customization tools like headers and colors in the future.