Facebook acquires iOS publishing platform Push Pop Press

Push Pop Press, the digital publisher that has the backing of former U.S. vice president Al Gore, announced through its website that it was acquired by Facebook.

The company received a lot of press earlier this year with the release of Gore's Our Choice, which subsequently won an Apple Design Award.

Push Pop Press states that while Facebook isn't moving into the digital publishing realm, its technology will be integrated with Facebook services. Our Choice will remain available on the App Store with further proceeds being donated to The Climate Reality Project.

While deal isn't a surprise, it creates a huge missed opportunity for Apple. Our Choice was one of those innovative apps that showed off the absolute best of the iPad, and while MacStories theorizes that Push Pop Press' systems might be a good fit for Facebook apps, Push Pop Press was just brushing the surface of what it could accomplish on its own. It's quite a difference from dealing with climate change to handling the teeming Farmville masses.

If anything, I would have loved to see Apple acquire Push Pop Press and use it as basis for its own in-house publisher (akin to Amazon's publishing programs such as Kindle Singles) -- to help authors create and publish interactive books for both the App Store and iBooks.