It was recently announced that social networking leader Facebook has purchased Push Pop Press, a digital book software company founded by Mike Matas and Kimon Tsinteris, two veterans of Apple. Moreover, Matas is the primary designer of many of the key interfaces on the iPhone, iPad, and Macs that most people who use these devices interact with on a daily basis. Push Pop Press is most widely known for creating a highly interactive iOS version of Al Gore’s book Our Choice.
Facebook did make a point to let people know that they don’t plan on getting into the e-book publishing business. In stead, they purchased the company so that “some of the technology, ideas and inspiration behind Push Pop Press to
become part of how millions of people connect and share with each other
on Facebook.”
Push Pop Press is highly focused on interface design, which shows in their publication of Our Choice, which has a slick user interface similar to a Flipboard, as well as interactive infographics and animations.
And now Facebook owns all of that design and engineering talent, as well as the e-book publishing technology. Likely, much of this will be used in the social network’s tablet apps, though other ways they may find to integrate it into their produts have yet to be seen. This is similar to many of Facebook’s other acquisitions in that it was a way for them to grab up new talent and technology, such as their purchase of Hot Potato in 2010.
From here on out, Push Pop will no longer publish e-books, although Our Choice will continue to be sold.
It should be interesting to see how other major Internet players, and e-book publishers, such as Google and Amazon respond to this decision.
While the initial hype surrounding the purchase is just that, hype, the procurement of this new technology could vastly change the way that Facebook and its users operate. In time, it’s not inconceivable to imagine those who use the social networking site to promote their products or services could soon be publishing online, interactive peridoicals for their fans to read.
That being said, businesses or companies using Facebook should be on the watch for the ways in which they can incorporate this technology into their Facebook pages.