Following the TikTok ban, social network Bluesky launched a custom feed for videos on its platform, and now, Flipboard's newest app, Surf, is taking advantage of this move to introduce a video feed of its own.

The Surf video feed initially combines video posts from Bluesky's "trending video" feed and those that include the hashtag #SkyTok. However, the company plans to soon personalize its feed to the end user, which will help differentiate it from Bluesky's own feed. This personalization will be achieved by adding users' Bluesky Following timeline as a source for the feed, filtered to show only video posts. This means the feed will display videos from the people users themselves follow.

This development highlights the power of allowing third-party developers to build custom feeds for social networking platforms. As Flipboard CEO Mike McCue noted, "This is just the latest example of how custom feeds on the social web can be used for all sorts of use cases — video sharing, photo sharing, discussion groups, messaging, etc. — that have been the exclusive domain of the large walled gardens."

Surf, currently in private beta, has also adopted Bluesky's new TikTok-style user interface for its feed. If you're not able to use Surf, you can still access its feed directly on Bluesky, where it's available as another native, custom feed option.

McCue demonstrated the flexibility of Surf by creating a "BookTok" type feed, which focuses on users discussing books on video, similar to TikTok's BookTok community. This feed can be viewed on both Surf and Bluesky, and was built by including all videos tagged with the hashtags #BookTok and #BookSky.

What's more, because those tags could exist on other apps besides Bluesky, when you use the feed on Surf itself, you'll be able to see videos from other services like YouTube, Threads, and Mastodon, in addition to videos from Bluesky. This is possible because Surf allows users to explore multiple social networks in its app, including those powered by protocols like ActivityPub (used by Mastodon), the AT Protocol (used by Bluesky), and RSS.

The implications of this development are significant, as it showcases the potential of open social web and decentralized services to enable innovative use cases and customization options. As McCue noted, "We're still early days but things are moving super fast here, especially on AT Proto [the protocol that powers Bluesky]." With Surf's video feed and other custom feeds, the possibilities for social media innovation seem endless.

In conclusion, the launch of Surf's custom video feed marks an exciting milestone in the evolution of social media, highlighting the benefits of open platforms and decentralized services. As the social web continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see how Surf and other innovators push the boundaries of what's possible.