iPaper and the end of pdf as we know it

Scribd Platform allows developers to integrate documents into their websites, with a simple and clean flash interface.

I have loved Scribd from the moment they came on the scene and have covered them a number of times. But this time I think they have exceeded my expectations. The iPaper is an advanced version of Adobe’s Flash Paper, and is specially created for the web. So its a lot faster and efficient, and I believe has the power to replace pdf files from the internet.

Since now you don’t need to have pdf installed on your machine to view these files, I am sure iPaper is going to make a real killing on the internet.

But the best part about it, is that Scribd managed to see something even mighty Adobe could not. ‘Flash Paper’ was originally created by Macromedia, which was later acquired by Adobe because they felt the competition. Now, when Adobe got Macromedia, apparently they just didn’t think that ‘Flash Paper’ was that cool, and it just lay in the dust for over four years.

That was the story until Scribd came along. Scribd initially started out by using ‘Flash Paper’ to serve the documents. And once it was proven that it was a successful idea ,they started writing their own interface for it, which just got released as iPaper. Adobe could have done it too, but alas they were too busy making AIR.

The mission for Scribd, is not that they can be as viral as YouTube, but if they can completely replace pdf in the long term.