Google Labs: Fast Flip

Browsing the news online has never been more fun! Try out Fast Flip,the latest innovation from Google Labs which allows readers to flip through the news quickly. The articles which are web pages have been stripped of ads and other items which making loading the pages slower. Readers can quickly decide if the article is worth their time and read most of it from Google; if they click on the article they will be taken to the publisher's website. The service uses Google News as the basis and has lined up about about 3 dozen cooperating publishers which include the BBC, The New York Times, the Washington Post and Newsweek.

Read: Google Site Lets Readers Flip Through the News in today's New York Times.

Obviously, the bigger your screen, the more enjoyable the experience. The small laptops at work are not nearly as much fun.

Google quadruples archives of news articles

About one year ago, Google launched an initiative to digitize newspapers and make them accessible and searchable online.

Now they have updated their news index with 4 times the number of articles included in News Archive Search. In addition, articles from more publications have been added, including the Halifax Gazette, Sydney Morning Herald, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and the Village Voice.

Explore this newly available primary source material by searching on Google News Archive Search or by using the timeline feature after searching on Google News. Many articles with free abstracts require a subscription or a fee per article. A handy feature of the advanced search shows links to related web information.