Google developing tech for Snapchat-like visual-oriented content

PanARMENIAN.Net - Google is developing technology to let publishers create visual-oriented media content along the lines of Snapchat’s “Discover”, according to people familiar with the situation, upping the ante in a race among tech giants to dominate news dissemination on smartphones, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Alphabet Inc.’s Google has been in discussions with several publishers, including Vox Media, CNN, Mic, the Washington Post and Time Inc., TIME 1.48% to participate in the project, which is dubbed “Stamp,” the people say. It could be announced as early as next week, one of the people said.

Google is building the service around its “AMP” mobile webpages, which are designed to load faster than regular webpages. The “St” in Stamp stands for “stories.”

Participating publishers would run stories that could be several swipeable slides encompassing text, photos and video, just as on Snap Inc.’s Snapchat, the people familiar with the situation say.

“Ever since the beginning of AMP we’ve constantly collaborated with publishers, and are working on many new features,” said a Google spokeswoman, who provided no further details.

Google is stepping up its efforts in a busy area of the digital media landscape. In addition to Snapchat, Facebook Inc. has its Instant Articles platform, which carries content from a variety of big-name publishers, while Apple Inc. has the Apple News app.