Last week, Internet glitterati Robert Scoble reported on Google+ that Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) was working on a Flipboard competitor, saying that it promised to be something very special.

Kara Swisher added to the story on the Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital blog, saying that this was a "souped up" version of Flipboard. I've been writing about Flipboard since I met co-founder Evan Doll at an event in January and he demoed the app for me. Flipboard takes your Facebook and Twitter feeds, and any RSS feeds you like from any source and presents them in a dynamic magazine-style layout.

The application is limited to iPad (at least for now), but I've made no secret about how much I like it. The look and feel are gorgeous and you can easily open the story in your browser, share by email or share directly on a social network from the application--giving you lots of options for viewing and sharing the content you find. (Integration with Evernote is still on my personal wish list.)

Flipboard, to me, is the ultimate tablet application combining content and presentation in a way that has not been matched,at least that I've seen. Google is going to have to do more than support multiple platforms to justify any comparison. I'm very curious to see what this looks like and if it can actually compete on a visual presentation level, something that hasn't been a tradition strength of Google's (although it's an area that's improving as the Google+ interface and the new look in Google Docs have shown).

As Swisher pointed out, Google tried to buy Flipboard last year and was spurned. Now it's trying its own hand at making a similar program. Whether, in spite of its deep resources, Google is able to come up with a viable Flipboard alternative remains to be seen, but it seems they are going to give it shot.

Can't wait to see what this looks like.

For more information:
- see Robert Scoble's Google Plus post
- see Kara Swisher's All Things Digital post

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