Facebook has snapped up digital book publisher Push Pop Press – turning a new page in the evolution of Zuckerberg‘s Social Network.
Push Pop Press is a relative unknown and its big break into the world of online publishing came last year when it made digitally available the book written by Al Gore entitled “Our Choice”. The book was released through an iOS app developed by the press co. and was the recipient of an Apple Design Awards.
However, don’t expect books to pop up on Facebook. Only the tech and software will be integrated with full details of its usage yet to be made clear. A statement from Push Pop Press reads that this will give people”even richer ways to share their stories”. So essentially we’re looking at a way for budding authors to share their written work amongst the users of the world’s largest social website. That’s quite a forum.
The press release continues “With millions of people publishing to Facebook each day, we think it’s going to be a great home for Push Pop Press”.
Facebook can attest to the promise brought by it’s aquisition by releasing their own statement saying “We’re thrilled to confirm that we’ve acquired Push Pop Press, a start-up whose groundbreaking software changes the way people publish and consume digital content.”
Facebook has recently integrated Skype video chat and with this next surprising venture the social network seems to keep us guessing. With a war building between Zuck’s network and the new Google+ experience (which to be honest is yet to deliver. Anything.) – any new weapon is worth adding to the arsenal.
The full press release from PushPopPress.com can be read below.
[spoiler]
Push Pop Press acquired by Facebook
Last year Push Pop Press set off to re-imagine the book. We created a new way of publishing and exploring text, images, audio, video and interactive graphics, then teamed up with Melcher Media and Al Gore to create a new kind of book.
The result is Al Gore’s Our Choice, which was released earlier this year. The response has been incredible. Tech columnist David Pogue of The New York Times summed it up by saying:
“this is one of the most elegant, fluid, impressive apps you’ve ever seen. It’s a showpiece for the new world of touch-screen gadgets.”
Now we’re taking our publishing technology and everything we’ve learned and are setting off to help design the world’s largest book, Facebook.
Although Facebook isn’t planning to start publishing digital books, the ideas and technology behind Push Pop Press will be integrated with Facebook, giving people even richer ways to share their stories. With millions of people publishing to Facebook each day, we think it’s going to be a great home for Push Pop Press.
Al Gore’s Our Choice will remain available for purchase, and we’ve decided that our future profits from the book will be donated to The Climate Reality Project. There are no plans to continue publishing new titles or building out our publishing platform that was in private beta. We are incredibly grateful to everyone who has supported and expressed interest in Push Pop Press.
Both Push Pop Press and Facebook share a passion for improving the way we share and explore ideas and we couldn’t be more excited about what the future holds.
Mike Matas
Kimon Tsinteris
Co-founders, Push Pop Press[/spoiler]