Google Bulletin Puts Local Stories In The Spotlight

The Internet has made the world a smaller place, making previously inaccessible places accessible with a click or tap of a link. But the Internet is also a messy, complicated place, both in terms of searching for such content as well as, and more importantly, creating content. That is why Google is developing a new app and service it simply calls Bulletin to help people cover interesting local stories for the world to see in one single place, with a process as easy as posting on Facebook or Twitter.

As the name implies, Google Bulletin is the digital and online equivalent of a local bulletin board, one that everyone around the world will be able to see as well. Its main purpose is to make it easier for anyone with a smartphone to add to that local Bulletin as well as make it easier to find all those interesting stories in one spot.

Details are still slim but Bulletin is pretty much a special-purpose social networking service and behaves like one as well. You simply post photos, video clips, and text from their phone and that's pretty much it. From the same app, users can simply browse the bulletin from the locales they're interested in.

Right now, Bulletin is in a limited pilot only available in Nashville and Oakland, but only if you request early access. Underneath the marketing, however, it pretty much sounds like another attempt by the big G to enter the social networking market, though a bit more low-key and on a smaller scale this time.

SOURCE: Google