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Digg says it’s serious about building a replacement for Google Reader

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Re: Digg says it’s serious about building a replacement for Google Reader

#31

Post by muglug »

larsberg wrote: post #25
muglug wrote: post #17

Um, there are a ton of Google Reader replacements out there doing incredibly well in the wake of that announcement. Digg deciding to create their own product from scratch seems very stupid.

Have you tried using any of them? Say what you will about Google Reader, but at least it didn't crash (most of the standalone apps) or require some sort of strange interpretive dance with your fingers to browse your articles and mark them as read (feedly). There's definitely space here.

Right, but those apps nevertheless have a footprint and (hopefully) a codebase to improve upon. At this point in time Digg has none of that -- just a once-well-known brand and a new redesign that's failed to capture back the audience/community lost to Reddit and others. This looks more like a hail mary than a solid business decision.

Re: Digg says it’s serious about building a replacement for Google Reader

#32

Post by lazugod »

jordanmoore_ wrote: post #24
greenmountin wrote: post #9

1) This article has no new information 2) The linked "Follow Our Progress" form is for email updates 3) Their tumblr blog has no rss link That's not what I call serious. I use their site all the time, but it's no substitute for GR, and I don't want their curation to overpower my feeds. Reader was all about the RSS. At this rate they are sounding like a tardy Prismatic.

1) Correct 2) Also correct, not sure why this is an issue 3) Their blog does have an RSS feed - http://blog.digg.com/rss do you mean an anchor link for subscribing? I can't recall I used one of those instead of the RSS icon in the address bar. Additionally, Digg - the product, like HN, Reddit etc was never going to be a substitute for Reader. The product they are currently working on sounds like a direct replacement…

The number of browsers offering an RSS button in the address bar is decreasing.

Re: Digg says it’s serious about building a replacement for Google Reader

#35

Post by Finster »

jordanmoore_ wrote: post #24
greenmountin wrote: post #9

1) This article has no new information 2) The linked "Follow Our Progress" form is for email updates 3) Their tumblr blog has no rss link That's not what I call serious. I use their site all the time, but it's no substitute for GR, and I don't want their curation to overpower my feeds. Reader was all about the RSS. At this rate they are sounding like a tardy Prismatic.

1) Correct 2) Also correct, not sure why this is an issue 3) Their blog does have an RSS feed - http://blog.digg.com/rss do you mean an anchor link for subscribing? I can't recall I used one of those instead of the RSS icon in the address bar. Additionally, Digg - the product, like HN, Reddit etc was never going to be a substitute for Reader. The product they are currently working on sounds like a direct replacement…

He's probably using Chrome. No native RSS support, ya know.

Re: Digg says it’s serious about building a replacement for Google Reader

#36

Post by Finster »

slg wrote: post #11

I have one question I want to propose to the gluttony of companies rushing to replace Google Reader. If it was such a valuable product, why would Google shut it down? I think we are getting too emotional in how we are viewing this market just because a lot of us used Reader. If Google thought there was money to be made with a great RSS reader, they wouldn't have left Reader abandoned for years. If there is a market i…

The same thing happened with Yahoo and delicious. People love that stuff, but Yahoo never bothered to develop it. In this space, growth comes through developing public API's. Google is notoriously bad at developing service API's. Don't misinterpret Google's failure to innovate and develop their product as a signal that such a product is inherently not valuable.

Re: Digg says it’s serious about building a replacement for Google Reader

#37

Post by amix »

I think this is a bad decision as the market has moved to other things. And others such as Feedly or NewsBlur already serve this niche well.

For the record I haven't used Google Reader for years (and I have over 500 feeds in it as I used it a lot at some point). Why? Because I find my news elsewhere (on Hacker News, Twitter, Google Plus, /r/python, reddit/r/programming etc.) - - And not to say the awesome mobile services such as Flipboard or Prismatic. I guess RSS usage is even worse for the mainstream and non-technical users.

Re: Digg says it’s serious about building a replacement for Google Reader

#39

Post by dombili »

muglug wrote: post #17

Um, there are a ton of Google Reader replacements out there doing incredibly well in the wake of that announcement. Digg deciding to create their own product from scratch seems very stupid.

I don't think it's stupid at all. I've yet to find an RSS reader for my needs. Newsblur is good looking but filled with useless features that I'll never use, The Old Reader is simple enough and I like its UI but it's not fast at all (meaning navigating between folders is pain in the ass and it fetches feeds extremely slowly). I subscribed to feedbin yesterday and canceled my subscription an hour later because it didn't even support folders. So there's not a great alternative for Google Reader out there yet. I believe Digg have the technical capability to create one and I like their goals.

They gotta build the system as fast as possible, though. I get that they're building the system from scratch, but by the time Google Reader is actually shut down, most people will settle down with other products.

Re: Digg says it’s serious about building a replacement for Google Reader

#40

Post by Grue3 »

muglug wrote: post #17

Um, there are a ton of Google Reader replacements out there doing incredibly well in the wake of that announcement. Digg deciding to create their own product from scratch seems very stupid.

And they are all terrible. Seriously, I have tried every single one of them, and none have the look and feel, and capability for instant updates of Google Reader.
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