Four months later: Google´s alternative to Flipboard is finally available worldwide
When version 1.0 was launched in December I was upset that Europe was left out and aired my frustration loud and clear on G+. After all, what could possibly be the reason for making it into a US-only launch? That Google Music was not accessible from Europe could be excused by vague references to ´licensing´ and ´copyright issues´.
The fact that even Indie artists were not on Google music did suggest it was not only money and legal issues depriving Europe from some music, but Currents was a different matter. A real slap in the face since it is just a piece of software running on iOS and Android which could have easily been rolled out globally. And yes, many people just side-loaded it through a proxy server so it was clear that it was fully functional wherever you lived.
The good news is that Currents is now available in 44 languages. Yes, you read that well, it´s more than a global availability, it also supports lots of local languages. Whatever our criticism at the time, this time Google delivered as it was not only available in many languages, but it also has a built in Google Translate.
Suddenly you can subscribe to Current editions of German, French or Italian papers and magazines and get a (bit crude sometimes, but) workable translation. This, of course is a fantastic feature for Europe where we are united by geography, a time zone and our cultural heritage, but where Babylon still rules and we often have trouble following the news from other countries.
No longer are we stuck with the few newspapers which publish in English as well as in their language, but now we can have a close to perfect experience reading The Guardian in Italian, Corriere dello Sport in German, or the Financial Times Germany in French. Since many Europeans are capable of reading a second language but appreciate a little help of the translate feature every now and then, it will be an effective tool to get Europeans closer to each other.
Google took its time with this release but luckily it did more than add the language and translate support. The new version is substantially faster, up to 7 times is the promise. It also offers dynamic sync, meaning you don´t have to manually force it to get new content.
For blogs this will a be huge content delivery platform as it offers a pull model, where you can subscribe to content, but can read at your leisure. You don´t even need an internet connection when you grabbed your copy, so all the tablets and iPads can be used to enjoy the spring weather while reading your favorite blog.
G+ itself as a source of content is not forgotten. You can get curated streams from your favorite Gplussers in a magazine format. It actually enables everyone to start publishing as it´s easy enough to setup a curated stream. Expect a lot of bloggers and magazines to jump on this wagon now that language support and slow syncing are no longer an issue.
Expect EuroTech to start using the platform in the near future and imagine how convenient it will be that you can rapidly switch between our English articles and your language of choice. It has been a long wait, but from what we see it was worth it. Kudos to Google for finally getting it right and turning the early duckling into a beautiful swan in time for the worldwide release.
Do you have plans to start publishing? What do you expect will be the result of this next step in multilingual magazines and blogs?
Link: how to start publishing in Currents:
https://support.google.com/producer/bin/static.py?hl=en&topic=2452769&page=table.cs
Author: Max Huijgen
