Just as Google Maps allows users to put images onto their sites, there will be an open API for Google's "Fast Flip," Google's Josh Cohen tells Beet.TV in this video interview.

Fast Flip, which is still in beta in Google Labs, is a platform which allows news publishers to have their content cached and presented on a Google page. 

Earlier this month, Google announced that 55 new publishers have joined the program.

Whether this will provide revenue or subscriber growth is too early to say.

Martin Nisenholtz, top digital executive at  The New York Times Company told Staci Kramer at paidContent that The Times' participation was not a "strategic" plan, but mostly a learning opportunity.

The new sharing functionality is planned but not yet available. 

Living Stories — Washington Post and New York Times are Initial Partners

Also in the interview, Josh speaks about the newly launched "Living Stories," Google News' aggregated pages around big news stories, including health care reform.  The New York Times and the Washington Post are the two publishers involved at this point.

Andy Plesser, Executive Producer

Update:  1.10.10  Google has put FastFlip on the home page of Google News.   The company announced this development on Friday.  

We are featuring this interview with Josh Cohen and post from December 25.   AP