Facebook Developing Flipboard Style Reader for iOS?

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Facebook is working on a Flipboard type reader for mobile devices like the iPhone. The project has been in the works for over a year now, meaning the company started the initiative before Google announced its plans to shut down their Reader service.

Apparently CEO Mark Zuckerberg is heavily involved in the project and it is rumored to have a design that mimics Flipboard.

The social network has been quietly working on a service, internally called Reader, that displays content from Facebook users and publishers in a new visual format tailored for mobile devices, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The project, which the company has been developing for more than a year, is designed to showcase news content in particular. Recent versions of Reader resemble Flipboard Inc., a smartphone and tablet app that aggregates stories from multiple sources and lets users swipe to flip through articles, said the people with knowledge of the project.

Interestingly enough, Michael Matas, a Facebook designer who previously worked for Apple is a lead designer of the project. "Reader," the internal name, may never see the light of day -- however, Facebook is clearly making an initiative to be more than just a social network to share photos and statuses.

Read More via TheVerge