Scribd, the online document repository, is launching a new brand and product, Float, an all-in-one reader app which will enable you to read articles that are of interest to you, follow up on links from your friends, catch up to your favorite blogs and so on.
The site will later also enable you to read all the articles you want from publications that normally have a paywall, for a fixed fee, similar to what Netflix does for movies or Spotify for music.
Float is not exactly revolutionary, there are several, quite popular reader apps out there, for the iPad and for the web, things like Instapaper, Flipboard, Pulse and so on.
The site aims to be the only place you need to visit go get all the content you want. You get feeds from your social networks, Facebook and Twitter being supported, content from your friends, based on the same social networks, plus the contacts in your Scribd account, and documents from Scribd.
You also get full articles from 150 or so publishers Scribd has partnered with. This is the main differentiating factor that could make Float the winner in the emerging market.
Publishers will get an ad revenue split, when ads start showing up on the site, later this year. The subscription version, which will allow access to more content from publishers that are behind a paywall, will launch later in the year. Scribd went all hands on deck for the new app and it's quite a departure from its existing business.
The new site has an advantage in the fact that it has partnered with publishers from the get go, but it remains to be seen if a lot of people really want a central place for all of their content and, if they do, if Float manages to do it in a coherent and non-overwhelming fashion.
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