WebProNews

Tag: RSS

  • Feedly Pro Launches with Search, HTTPS, and Better Support

    Feedly, the RSS reader that took an early and substantial lead when everybody went shopping for a Google Reader replacement, has finally taken the veil off its premium service. Today, the company launched Feedly Pro, which looks to improve search, security, and support.

    Upgrading to Feedly Pro will give you article search – which has been absent from Feedly for some time. The previous search was the Google Reader search, but since Feedly has had to stop relying on that, they’ve had to rebuild search from scratch. The Pro version also adds https for extra security, one-click saving via Evernote, and premium support, which will move you to the front of the support queue whenever you have a problem.

    Feedly Pro will cost $5 per month, or you can pay $45 for a year’s subscription and save $15. Wide availability will begin later this fall, but Feedly is offering the Pro service to 5,000 users right now – and they’re offering a “lifetime edition.” If you decide to upgrade now, you can have Feedly Pro forever for only $99.

    Feedly says that Feedly Pro will keep getting better.

    “We will be introducing new pro features regularly. The next batch of features will be decided on by feedly pro users themselves, as you will get to vote on what features you would like feedly to develop next…The funds will finance the hardware needed to make feedly pro generally available and help support the next batch of features,” says the company.

    This won’t change Feedly’s free service, which will continue to run as is. Feedly says this definitely doesn’t mean that they will be neglecting the free version either. They’re offering a 7-day trial, and will give users a full refund if they are unsatisfied with the Pro version.

  • Google Reader Alternative Spotlight: Feedspot

    Google Reader has been officially gone for a whole month now, but there is likely still a lot of experimentation going on when it comes to alternative tools for consuming news and blog content. We’ve certainly discussed a number of them here. Today, we’re going to take a look at Feedspot, which in some ways looks very similar to others like Feedly, Digg Reader and AOL Reader, but does offer some unique features, including one that might help you replace your reliance on Google Alerts as well.

    “All the existing RSS Readers are still single utility products. Feedspot’s goal is to connect RSS Reader users so that each user gets the benefit of the entire RSS Reader Ecosystem,” founder Anuj Agarwal tells WebProNews.

    To do this, Feedspot has implemented following features and tools like the ability to follow news using keywords, and the ability to share and follow folders and other users, as well as an advanced search feature.

    “Many users around the world are not satisfied with Google Alerts,” Agarwal says. “We integrated a feature called ‘Track this keyword’ that lets a user follow news using ‘Keywords’.”

    You can see an example here.

    Feedspot - Track keywords

    Feedspot Keyword tracking

    If you click “Track this keyword” the keyword gets added to your homepage, and you can track all the news that happens around it.

    “Each folder has a unique url and can be shared via email or on twitter, FB etc. So that other users can directly follow curated folders. Just like Twitter List feature,” explains Agarwal. The Follow Users feature is pretty self explanatory, but creates what Agarwal calls “a niche social network designed for RSS readers.”

    Sharing on Feedspot

    Feedspot sharing

    Feedspot sharing

    Feedspot Sharing

    The advanced search feature adds filters to make the search experience more useful for specific needs.

    Advanced Search

    While some saw the demise of Google Reader as a sign that RSS is in its last days, others view the event as something of a dawn of new innovation around the format. This includes Agarwal.

    “I believe, RSS as a tech has a lot of potential,” he tells us. “Our goal is to take this product to the mainstream users and i’m sure they will find it useful too as much as we geeks love RSS Reader.”

    “The Keyword-based feed approach appeals to mainstream users who don’t care about following specific blogs or authors, but rather subject areas of interest. eg celebrities, favorite sports team etc.,” he says.

    The feature, of course, also has business benefits, such as the ability to monitor yourself, your brand, and your competitors, as well as the ability to find potential customers and spot emerging trends, Agarwal says.

    “This tool is a sure way of finding potential customers,” he says .”Using relevant key words, you can be able to get customers who are in the market for exactly what you deal in.”

    “One of the things businesses have to do is keep up with the ever changing market,” he adds. “Keyword Tracking ensures that you are kept in the know on any and all new developments in your industry.

    You can also use it to find out who’s linking to you.

    The most important aspect of the Keyword Tracking feature, Agarwal says is that it saves you time by eliminating “the hassle of having to go through hundreds of articles looking for content that is pertinent to you.”

    “The system only gives you content that is relevant to you or your company/brand,” he says.

    The feature will allow you to search within the feeds you follow, see only results from a specific one or more feeds of your choice, search in title only, exact phrase search, etc. It will also let you search the web.

    “Both these features are aimed to increase users productivity,” says Agarwal, referring to keyword tracking and advanced search. “Plus, it has business use case as well. Apart of this, we added social features to make it even more easier for users to discover new feeds from their friends and to see popular articles shared by them.”

    Feedspot certainly does offer some features that some of the other potential Google Reader replacements do not. If you’re still experimenting with the options or trying to decide which one is going to be your true replacement, you might want to check it out.

  • Feedly Fixes A Bunch Of Stuff, Says Mini Toolbar Will Be Back In The Fall

    Feedly announced a bunch of fixes it has made to various features, and that it is working on bringing the mini toolbar back. The feature which went missing weeks ago (around the time Google Reader finally went down, actually), was one of the best parts about Feedly, as it let you easily add feeds from whatever site you happened to be on, as well as save content for later reading (regardless of whether you are subscribed), and share content via social networks.

    The company says it is working on redesigning the feature into “something more capable and less intrusive,” and that it will be part of the coming version 17, which is scheduled for release in early fall.

    The Android widget, the company says, is also being worked on.

    “We are re-implementing the android widget on top of the feedly cloud,” Feedly co-founder and CEO Edwin Khodabakchian said in a blog post. “It requires a couple of weeks of work. Not sure if we will be able to schedule it for v17 or if it will have to wait for v18.”

    In the meantime, Feedly has added hardware to make polling and accessing Feedly faster, added a preference knob to enable a more compact list view, fixed “mark as read” sync across devices, changed its font, added better spacebar and shift+spacebar navigation support, fixed syncing of category orders between cloud and mobile, and more.

    You can see the full list of fixes in the blog post here.

  • Apparently, Larry Page Didn’t Give a Damn About Google Reader, So It Died

    When we talk about the story of Google Reader’s tragic demise, there’s the corporate excuse, the speculation, and the additional speculation. But here’s another possible reason: Google Reader died because Larry Page and the higher ups simply didn’t care enough about it.

    And because of that, nobody stepped up to lead the product.

    At least that’s one version of the story, according to a report from Buzzfeed. They cite several sources familiar with the matter who say that Larry Page and his “inner circle of lieutenants” simply didn’t see Google Reader as an “important strategic priority.” So when the product found itself without and engineering head, nobody wanted to devote any more time into it because they saw it as a losing horse.

    Still, this scenario, while plausible, doesn’t address the deeper question of why Larry Page and his higher-ups had such little interest in keeping Google Reader going.

    When Google first announced that they were killing the beloved RSS reader, here’s what the had to say:

    “We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites. While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader.”

    Blaming it on user disinterest seemed a bit disingenuous to some, especially considering the massive outpouring of anger and sadness following the decision.

    A few weeks later, Google’s Senior Director of News & Social Products Richard Gringas blamed its failure on a shift in the way we consume news:

    “As a culture we have moved into a realm where the consumption of news is a near-constant process. Users with smartphones and tablets are consuming news in bits and bites throughout the course of the day – replacing the old standard behaviors of news consumption over breakfast along with a leisurely read at the end of the day,” he said.

    Of course, some speculate that it was a money thing, or it was a play to drive more use of Google+, or that Google wasn’t able to mine the right kind/amount of user data from Reader.

    In reality, it was probably a combination of some/all of these factors. But it sure doesn’t help if the big guy is completely disinterested in the product.

  • Flipboard Reportedly Fails To Preserve Users’ Google Reader Feeds [Updated]

    Google Reader is now officially gone. If you’re reading this, you’re probably well aware of that. Hopefully you found a service to keep your feeds in tact. Some who were relying on Flipboard are finding themselves out of luck now that Reader has gone away.

    People have taken to Twitter to complain that Flipboard did not maintain their feeds after promising to do so. TechCrunch reports on the situation, after receiving some “private tips” from those affected. It doesn’t appear to have been a problem for all users, but there are a lot of people complaining.

    There are more where that came from.

    On March 14th, after Google announced it would shut down Reader, Flipboard put out a blog post called, “We’ve Got Your RSS Covered! Save Your Google Reader Feeds Now”.

    In the post, Flipboard said ,”If you already have a Flipboard account and you have signed into your Google Reader, you don’t need to do anything. Your feeds will be saved. Even if you don’t use Google Reader, you can always add any RSS feed to your Flipboard by tapping on the red ribbon and searching for the feed.”

    “Flipboard will preserve your Google Reader feeds, folders and favorited items, so you can continue to enjoy all your subscriptions,” Flipboard said in a June 17th blog post.

    It’s unclear at this point whether Flipboard will be able to recover users’ feeds.

    Update:: TechCrunch has updated its report with a statement from the company: “We have all the feeds; nothing is lost. People can access their folders and feeds. At the moment, only the summary feed called “All Feeds” is not working for everyone.”

    Here’s Flipboard’s blog post about the situation.

  • RIP, Google Reader. So, What Now?

    R.I.P., Google Reader – 2005-2013.

    It’s better to burn out than it is to fade away, right? For many Google Reader users, this will feel like a burn out. Even though Google announced that they would be killing their 8-year-old RSS reader product way back in March and gave users nearly 4 months to migrate to another service – some Google Reader users will still feel the sting as service goes quiet.

    But for Google, Reader has been fading away. In their discussion on why they were choosing to ax it, Google was brief and to the point.

    “While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader.”

    Were you a Google Reader user? What’s your next step? Let us know in the comments.

    Of course, the announcement caused one hell of a freakout from the Google Reader devotees. Apparently, Google Reader was still popular – but not popular enough. A few months later, a News and Social Director at Google elaborated a bit more on the Reader shutdown.

    “As a culture we have moved into a realm where the consumption of news is a near-constant process. Users with smartphones and tablets are consuming news in bits and bites throughout the course of the day – replacing the old standard behaviors of news consumption over breakfast along with a leisurely read at the end of the day,” said Richard Gringras.

    Apparently, Google Reader was dying because news consumption is changing. Gringas also added that they were looking at “pervasive means to surface news across [Google’s] products to address each user’s interest with the right information at the right time via the most appropriate means.”

    Google’s definitely not done with the news, There’s still plenty of opportunities to deliver feed-like functionality inside Google+, or selective updates via Google Now, for instance. What it feels like, however, is a push toward Google+. When Gringas says news consumption has shifted to “bits and bites,” you may immediately think Twitter. But of course, Google wants you to think Google+ as well.

    And there’s some underlying architecture in Google+ that at least partially mimics a “reader” of sorts. Instead of RSS subscriptions, Google+ lets you follow the news site or blog in question. And with that “following” circle, you can see all of the most recent updates made by the blogs you follow. But it’s not the same as a true RSS reader – updates are selective. As of right now, Google+ simply cannot provide the complete stream of content that a traditional RSS reader can – in fact, no social network can.

    But it’s clear that Google wishes us to move in that direction. And it’s also clear that they are 100% done with operating a basic RSS reader. Not only that, but they’re moving away from any sort of RSS in general. Along with Google Reader, Google just killed RSS alerts as well.

    As a person who relied pretty heavily on these RSS alerts, here’s Chris Crum’s take. Feel his pain:

    I can’t speak for all Google Reader/RSS users, but RSS alerts have long been an important part of how I find information on the web pertaining to specific topics. It’s always been a more attractive option to me than email, because I don’t really want my email inbox cluttered up with all of these alerts (I’ve been subscribed to quite a few). I had them all organized to go into specific folders in Google Reader (now Feedly), so they came up where relevant. Now, those of us who do this are going to have to rethink our entire Alerts strategy.

    It’s not the end of the world. We’ll move on, just as we’re moving on from Google Reader, but damn is in inconvenient at the moment.

    He’ll move on. We’ll all move on from Google Reader. Google’s eradication of all things RSS is just a pain in the ass – that’s all.

    Luckily, there are plenty of alternatives – both services that were already there, waiting for their moment to move to the front of the line, and services that popped up in the wake of Google’s announcement.

    There’s Netvibes, The Old Reader, Bloglovin’, NewsBlur, FlipBoard, Pulse (which LinkedIn is apparently buying), and Zite, just to name a few.

    And Feedly, which has been a favorite for Google Reader users who have migrated early.

    Then you have your new kids on the block from established names. Both AOL and Digg have launched their own readers in the past week – both currently in beta.

    But Google Reader is dead. And you’re either going to have to move on to another RSS reader or abandon RSS altogether. If you’re looking to do the former, Google is giving everyone until July 15th to retrieve all of their subscription data via Google Takeout. After that, all of that data will be gone forever.

    Let’s pour one out for Google Reader.

    Which RSS reader have you migrated to in the wake of Google Reader’s demise? Do you think RSS still has a place in news consumption? Let us know in the comments.

  • You Can Retrieve Your Google Reader Data Until July 15th

    If you’re a Google Reader user, you know that the service officially went offline yesterday, July 1st. We knew it was coming – Google gave us nearly 4 months of warning. But when Reader finally stopped receiving updates, well, it felt kind of abrupt. Oh well, on to the next reader.

    But in order to move on to that next reader, you’re probably going to need your Google Reader subscription data. Good news, procrastinators: Your data hasn’t been wiped out – yet. Google Reader may have gone dark on July 1st, but you have another two weeks to snag your data from Google.

    Using Google Takeout, you have until July 15th at 12 pm PST to retrieve your subscription data.

    After that, it will be “irrevocably deleted.” Gone. Forever.

    Google didn’t offer any more info on Reader’s shutdown in the blog post, only the information on data retrieval.

    “We understand you may not agree with this decision, but we hope you’ll come to love these alternatives as much as you loved Reader.”

    Google links to a site listing RSS reader alternatives.

    For more on Google Reader’s demise, check here.

  • Yep, Google Just Killed RSS Alerts Too

    Monday marked the official end of Google Reader. The announcement back in March seems like an eternity ago, and many of us have long since moved on to alternatives for our RSS news consumption habits.

    Google took its war on RSS one step further on Monday, however, killing the RSS option in Google Alerts as well. If you were subscribed to RSS alerts, you might have seen a message in whatever reader you’re using these days, informing you of the change. Google’s solution for those using them, was simply to start using its email alerts.

    Sigh.

    Something's missing

    Something’s missing.

    I can’t speak for all Google Reader/RSS users, but RSS alerts have long been an important part of how I find information on the web pertaining to specific topics. It’s always been a more attractive option to me than email, because I don’t really want my email inbox cluttered up with all of these alerts (I’ve been subscribed to quite a few). I had them all organized to go into specific folders in Google Reader (now Feedly), so they came up where relevant. Now, those of us who do this are going to have to rethink our entire Alerts strategy.

    It’s not the end of the world. We’ll move on, just as we’re moving on from Google Reader, but damn is in inconvenient at the moment.

    It looks like email as an alternative to RSS does apply in some cases.

    At least Google didn’t entirely kill Google Alerts as we were worried they might. At least not yet. It seems like there’s always room in the Google Graveyard.

    Yahoo, by the way, also just killed its RSS alerts, though it did get new search alerts for web, images and video to go along with news, fantasy sports, horoscopes, stocks, travel destinations and weather.

    image via: http://nooooooooooooooo.com/

  • HootSuite Launches ‘Syndicator’ RSS Tool Ahead Of Google Reader’s Demise

    You can add HootSuite to the list of Google Reader alternatives popping up ahead of Google’s shut down of Google Reader on July 1st. The company just announced the launch of HootSuite Syndicator, an app that brings RSS into the Hootsuite dashboard.

    HootSuite has a unique angle in that it is already a popular social media management dashboard, which the company reminds us is used by 79 of the Fortune 100 companies.

    A HootSuite spokesperson tells WebProNews, “Following the launch, HootSuite’s App Directory will feature 56 social networks and tools for its over seven million Free, Pro, and Enterprise users across the globe, including Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr, Evernote, MailChimp, Zendesk, Yammer, Statigram, SurveyMonkey, Chartbeat and more.”

    “Today, social media practitioners are using RSS in completely new ways,” the spokesperson adds. “Those under pressure to push content through social channels will find this new app extremely useful in providing them with a library of content they selectively choose to share. Content curation is rising in popularity among brand marketers, even while popular RSS readers are closing down or withering to obscurity. HootSuite’s newest app will put full control of content creation back into the hands of the dashboard user.”

    The company talks a bit more about this in the following video:

    There’s a new version of HootSuite’s “Hootlet” Chrome extension that supports RSS feeds, and lets you add them as streams in the HootSuite dash.

    More on HootSuite’s blog.

  • Digg Reader Rollout Starts Today, iOS App Coming Tomorrow

    As announced, today, June 26th, Digg is beginning to roll out their new Digg Reader in beta.

    The first invites have already gone out to their survey participants that gave them guidance on what kind of reader to build over the last few months. Now, Digg is sending out invites to those who have signed up for a peek at the beta.

    (If you’ve yet to do so, you can do it here)

    Digg reiterates that their new reader is primarily targeted at Google Reader refugees:

    “This beta version is aimed first and foremost at Google Reader users looking for a new home in advance of its imminent shutdown. Once you connect your Google Account, you’ll find all of your feeds and folders set up and ready to go. And even if you’re not a Google Reader refugee, come on in! You can build up your list of sources by browsing recommended publishers or searching for feeds via the “Add” button,” they say.

    Digg Reader beta launches with keyboard shortcuts, social media sharing, saving features, and recommendations for feeds to follow. In the future, Digg says they will add search, “mark as unread” feature, more sharing options, and data exporting.

    And we’re getting an app – tomorrow, they say. Well, iOS users are. Android users are going to have to wait. That’s one of Digg’s promises for the future, which they say will be completed by the end of next month.

    Once we have a chance to take a look, we’ll be back with a full walkthrough. For not, Digg joins a crowded list of RSS readers looking to replace the beloved (but not beloved enough) Google Reader – including AOL, who just launched their product earlier this week.

  • ‘Facebook Reader’ Has Been in the Works for Over a Year [REPORT]

    Even before Google announced their decision to shut down Google Reader, Facebook was already hard at work developing a Flipboard-style news reader, according to a new report.

    The Wall Street Journal says that Facebook has called the product “Reader” internally, and they’ve been working on it for over a year.

    From the WSJ:

    The social network has been quietly working on a service, internally called Reader, that displays content from Facebook users and publishers in a new visual format tailored for mobile devices, people with knowledge of the matter said.

    The project, which the company has been developing for more than a year, is designed to showcase news content in particular. Recent versions of Reader resemble Flipboard Inc., a smartphone and tablet app that aggregates stories from multiple sources and lets users swipe to flip through articles, said the people with knowledge of the project.

    This is actually not the first time we’ve heard of a Facebook reader of sorts – it’s sort of secondary confirmation. Earlier this month, a developer who closely watches changes in Facebook code discovered some new mentions of RSS feeds thrown in there.

    As Tom Waddington described it:

    A new entry appeared – now users have RSS feeds, each RSS feed has multiple entries, and a list of subscribers. What’s surprising is that the code mentions RSS specifically, and distinctly from existing interest lists and friend lists. Also, note that this is unconnected to Facebook outputting RSS feeds, which they’ve done for a while.

    So it is looking more and more like this visual, Flipboard-style Facebook Reader is actually a real thing. There’s not word on Facebook’s timetable for launch – if there even is one. But it looks like it may be there, in the works.

    If Facebook unveils this new product, it’s going to face competition from existing readers, as well as new breaks into the crowded space from the likes of Digg and AOL. But Facebook could have a huge advantage over those companies – considering how they could integrate their massive user graph into a new reader to make it more social than anyone else possibly could. It’ll be interesting to see how a Facebook Reader plays with the rest of Facebook – you can bet they will be more than friends.

  • AOL Reader Revealed, Officially Launches in Beta

    After teasing the service last Friday, AOL has begun to give beta access to some users for their new RSS Reader, appropriately titled AOL Reader. Upon first look, it’s a basic, perfectly functional RSS reader that doesn’t bring a whole lot of new features to the table (yet, at least), but will be familiar to Google Reader users.

    You can request access at reader.aol.com.

    As of right now, you can sign in with an AOL account or you can request access to the beta with another email address (I joined using my Gmail address).

    Upon signing in and accessing the beta, AOL prompts you to get started by manually adding new subscriptions of importing from another RSS reader (Google Reader included).

    After that, you’ll be met with a familiar setup – a big list view of new article in your feeds. Like Google Reader and other readers, your specific RSS feeds will be accessible from the left-hand side, with articles appearing on the right-hand side. You can change the layout format to one of four different options: list view, card view, full view, and pane view. The reader also has some basic sorting options like view unread and sort by oldest or newest.

    You can also star articles and sort by starred as well. Like most other readers, there’s a “mark as read” feature as well.

    Once you view an article inside AOL reader, you also have some social sharing options – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and of course, email.

    Also, AOL Reader API is ready and free while the product is in beta.

    Like I said before, the beta is currently pretty barebones, but clean and functional. AOL says that there are plenty of new features on the way, however, including sharing within AOL Reader and other RSS readers, search, notifications, and native iOS and Android apps.

    As you know, Google Reader is shutting down for good on July 1st. It’s not surprising that AOL decided to throw their hat in the ring – they’ve been surfacing and outputting content for years. But it could be a little late. The RSS reader-to-replace-Google-Reader battle already has a lot of participants. But it’s a solid effort from AOL. As we say with most of these new RSS products (Digg’s got one on the way) – we’ll just have to wait and see how it shakes out.

  • AOL Reader Spotted in the Wild, Currently in Private Beta

    It looks like AOL is getting ready to throw their hat in the who-wants-to-replace-Google-reader ring. The Next Web discovered reader.aol.com – a barebones site that features just one message:

    “AOL Reader: All your favorite websites, in once place.”

    It says that the product is in private beta and lets you submit an email address to request an invite. Also, the site has a familiar favicon – the universal symbol for RSS.

    Also, from TNW:

    [T]he site’s CSS styles reveal that the service will offer mobile Web optimizations for touch devices. Additionally, it appears LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter and Facebook sharing will be supported, judging by the CSS.

    As you probably know, Google Reader’s days are numbered. The service will go dark on July 1st. And with that shutter, millions of RSS users will go scrambling for something to latch onto (the ones who haven’t left already). Of course, there are already options out there like Feedly, Netvibes, The Old Reader, Bloglovin’, NewsBlur, FlipBoard, Pulse, and Zite. And Digg just announced a private beta for its new RSS reader, set to launch to all on June 26th. Oh, and maybe Facebook could be in the mix as well?

    The point is, the space is crowded.

    UPDATE: AOL just posted this Vine video. See you Monday!

  • Digg Reader Beta Launching June 26th, Will Be Free

    Digg Reader, Digg’s RSS reader replacement for Google Reader, has been in the works for the past three months – really ever since Google announced that they’d be shutting down their own reader on July 1st. With the date fast approaching, Digg has finally unveiled more details about their new product.

    Digg Reader will launch next week “in phases,” and they say that everyone will have access by June 26th.

    Like before, Digg is emphasizing that their RSS reader will focus on speed, simplicity, and ease of transition for Google Reader users. And they’re focusing on power users:

    “Given the compressed time frame for this sprint, we decided early on that we needed to focus on one type of user. We asked ourselves who had most to lose from the shutdown of Google Reader, and the answer was fairly obvious: the power user, the people who depend on the availability, stability, and speed of Reader every day,” says Digg.

    Here’s what Digg says we can expect from Digg Reader, v.1:

    • Easy migration and onboarding from Google Reader.
    • A clean reading experience that gets out of the way and puts the focus squarely on the articles, posts, images, and videos themselves.
    • Useful mobile apps that sync with the web experience.
    • Support for key actions like subscribing, sharing, saving and organizing.

    In the future, the focus will shift to building an Android app and integrating with other services. Digg says that future version of their Reader will also sport search, notifications, and better sorting tools.

    Digg has previously hinted that their reader would be paid, or at least “freemium.” This is still true, but Digg says that the basic experience (plus some additional features) will be free.

    “We mentioned in a prior post that Digg Reader will ultimately be a ‘freemium’ product. But we’re not going to bait-and-switch. All of the features introduced next week, as well as many others yet to come, will be part of the free experience,” says Digg.

  • Could Facebook Be Working on an RSS Reader?

    Developer Tom Waddington, who has a history of finding stuff buried in Facebook’s code, has found something there that makes him believe that Facebook may be looking to throw its hat in the Google Reader replacement ring.

    Is Facebook working on a RSS Reader of their own?

    Waddington spotted some mentions of RSS feeds in Facebook’s code. It’s a pretty timely spot, considering Google is about to shutter the most popular RSS reader (but not popular enough, obviously) on July 1st.

    Here’s how he describes it:

    A new entry appeared – now users have RSS feeds, each RSS feed has multiple entries, and a list of subscribers. What’s surprising is that the code mentions RSS specifically, and distinctly from existing interest lists and friend lists. Also, note that this is unconnected to Facebook outputting RSS feeds, which they’ve done for a while.

    Facebook has let users “subscribe” to the posts of users and pages for some time. And in the distant past, you could also subscribe via RSS to page content. But a true RSS reader? That’s never been Facebook’s game.

    Google’s on the way out of that game, though. There are currently plenty of other RSS readers looking to pick up the pieces when Google Reader officially crumbles and sends users scavenging for a lifeline. Also, Digg is on the verge of unveiling it’s supposed Google Reader replacement. Until now, the was the biggest name involved in the RSS right. If Facebook joined the party, it would be a big, big deal.

    [Tom Waddington via Mashable]

  • Google Reader Is Dying Because News Consumption Is Changing

    Check your calendars, folks. The beheading of Google Reader is less than a month away. On July 1st, the popular (but not popular enough) RSS reader will close forever. If you weren’t aware of this, Google will remind you the next time you open up Reader.

    When Google made the fateful decision that launched a thousand Twitter freakouts, they made little no effort to explain why they were shuttering the product.

    “We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites. While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader.” said Google.

    Was it a money thing? Was Google simply unable to keep a product running that gave them so little information about its users? Did Google want to force people into using other Google products for news consumption – Google+, for instance?

    Probably, definitely, and definitely. But now, Google has provided a little bit better explanation of why they really killed Google Reader – news consumption is changing, and they have to change with the times.

    “As a culture we have moved into a realm where the consumption of news is a near-constant process. Users with smartphones and tablets are consuming news in bits and bites throughout the course of the day – replacing the old standard behaviors of news consumption over breakfast along with a leisurely read at the end of the day,” Richard Gringras, Senior Director, News & Social Products at Google told Wired.

    Sitting down and plowing through a long stream of links isn’t really a thing anymore, apparently. News is now delivered in “bits and bites” – think Twitter.

    Or Google+, hopefully.

    Gringas said Google is looking at “pervasive means to surface news across [Google’s] products to address each user’s interest with the right information at the right time via the most appropriate means.”

    Google+? Google Now? That’s what Google sees as the future of news consumption.

    But if you’re someone who wishes to stick to your RSS readers when Google Reader gets the final ax, well, there are plenty of options. But Google has a point about news consumption. The times they are a changin’.

  • Digg Reader Will Not Be a Standalone App, Launching By the End of June

    Digg’s new RSS reader will be out in about a month – but it won’t be a standalone app.

    Instead, Digg’s new reader will simply be a part of Digg. Speaking at Internet Week New York, Digg CEO Andrew McLaughlin said that users will ”have one download, which is Digg, and the current Digg will have added onto it reader capabilities.”

    Oh, and yes, Digg’s reader will be called “Digg Reader.”

    Ever since Digg announced that they were working on their own reader, shortly after Google announced that they were killing Google Reader, the goal has been to build a replacement – something fast and simple that Google Reader users will want to adopt. Digg has said that apart from making it fast and simple, they really only want to make it synchronous across multiple devices and make it easy to import from existing Google Reader accounts.

    Digg’s own surveys have shown that users want very little changed about Google Reader.

    Another interesting thing that they found was that 40% of respondents said that they would pay for a Google Reader replacement – something that “pleased” them. They went on to say that they wanted their users ““to be customers, not our product.”

    “Free products on the Internet don’t have a great track record. They tend to disappear, leaving users in a lurch. We need to build a product that people can rely on and trust will always be there for them. We’re not sure how pricing might work, but we do know that we’d like our users to be our customers, not our product. So when we asked survey participants whether or not they would be willing to pay, we were pleased to see that over 40% said yes.”

    Although there’s no confirmation here, that makes it seem like Digg is at least strongly considering charging for Digg Reader. And if that’s the case, and it’s not even its own standalone app, is Digg just trying to charge people to use Digg?

    Anyway, McLaughlin confirmed that Digg Reader will launch by the end of June, just in time for the Google Reader kill date of July 1st. Hopefully for Digg, that’s not too late. By then, users will have had months to find a replacement, and there are certainly plenty out there.

  • Digg Is Probably Going to Charge for Its Google Reader Replacement

    Digg has just published the results of part 2 of their user survey into what makes a good RSS reader. It’s all part of their quest to build a Google Reader replacement, which they announced on the same day Google announced they would be killing their product in July.

    In part 1, we learned that users want very little changed – they want a simple, fast, feature-light RSS reader. This time around, Digg found that a majority of users aren’t really into social features inside readers. They also uncovered that 40% would pay for a good reader. And that led Digg to all but announce that Digg Reader will be a paid service.

    Although they don’t come right out and say it, Digg says that they were “pleased” to see that 40% of their survey respondents said that they would pay for a Google Reader replacement.

    Also, Digg says that they would like their users “to be customers, not our product.” Sounds like Digg is pretty much set on charging for their RSS reader:

    Free products on the Internet don’t have a great track record. They tend to disappear, leaving users in a lurch. We need to build a product that people can rely on and trust will always be there for them. We’re not sure how pricing might work, but we do know that we’d like our users to be our customers, not our product. So when we asked survey participants whether or not they would be willing to pay, we were pleased to see that over 40% said yes.

    Although Google Reader was a free product, and yes, it is being shuttered, I’m not sure it’s accurate to say that free products on the internet don’t have a great track record. Plenty of free products have thrived and continue to thrive, with the help of advertising.

    Either way, Digg probably needs to go ahead and get their reader on the market – sooner rather than later. It’s already been over a month and a half since Google announced the end of Google Reader. Users have already had plenty of time to find alternatives like Feedly, NewsBlur, Netvibes, FlipBoard, and many, many more. Digg has targeted June for the beta release – but will that be too late? And how amazing would it have to be to get people to pay for it?

  • In Their Quest to Build a Google Reader Replacement, Digg Finds Users Want Very Little Changed

    You definitely know that Google is killing Google Reader. You’ve either seen or been part of the outrage. Google will be officially shuttering their popular (but not popular enough) product on July 1st, but as you would expect they’re slowly removing its presence to help ease us all into the transition.

    And you probably know that Digg is working to build a replacement. They announced this literally hours after Google made their announcement that they were killing the product. Digg has said from the start that they want to build something that’s fast and simple, and could serve as a true replacement for Google Reader.

    Today, Digg has published the results of a survey they sent out to over 17,000 people (8,000+ responses so far), which sought to uncover exactly what people want in the upcoming Digg Reader.

    And here’s the most important finding:

    What you’re looking at it a word cloud, charting the responses to the question “if there’s one thing you could remove from Google Reader, what would it be?”

    Nothing. Google Reader users don’t want anything more. They just want Google Reader. Or, since the second-most tracked word was “google,” they simply want a Reader that functions exactly like Google Reader – with or without Google’s hand.

    The survey feedback also uncovered some stats about RSS reader users, like most subscribe to a good number of feeds (roughly 70% subscribe to more than 51) and 80% check their feeds multiple times a day. Nearly 80% said that they use Google Reader for both work and play, and over 40% said that Google Reader is the only RSS reader that they use (the nest most popular feed reader was Feedly).

    Some of the feedback gave Digg an idea of what was most important to include in their upcoming reader. For instance, 67% said that they use keyboard shortcuts in Google Reader at least some of the time. That prompted Digg to proclaim that those are “definitely on the list.”

    On the flip side, there was search:

    “This was an interesting data point. While 25% reported never using search, over just over half said that they sometimes do. Search is a huge investment in terms of development time and infrastructure costs. We don’t yet know if we’ll have the necessary infrastructure up and running in time for our initial beta launch, but it’s definitely on the roadmap,” says Digg.

    There’s definitely going to be a hole in the market for a Google Reader-like reader come July 1st when it all goes dark – even with other options already available. Whether or not Digg can step up into that role remains to be seen. Let’s think positively.

  • Flipboard Gets A Big Overhaul On iOS With 2.0

    Flipboard has launched a big overhaul with version 2.0, which transforms the reading experience to something of a creation/curation experience. Now, in addition to reading news in a magazine-like format, you can create your own magazine-like experiences based on your interests.

    “When you search, we instantly create a magazine out of your results. It’s faster, more visual, and easier to navigate,” explains the Flipboard team in a blog post. “And, for the first time, you can collect and save articles, photos, audio and video by organizing them into beautiful magazines. These can be private, or if you want to connect with like-minded enthusiasts, you can make them public and share them on Flipboard and beyond. Now everyone can be a reader and an editor.”

    Users can hit the + button next to articles, create “magazine” names, and addd descriptions. There’s no limit to the number of magazines you can create (at least that’s what they say). In addition to news sources, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SoundCloud, LinkedIn and Tumblr can be used for magazine content.

    The new Flipboard also comes with more content, including a partnership with Etsy, which should mean good things for the rapidly growing online marketplace.

    There’s a bookmarklet, which users can add to their browsers and use it to addd any piece of content on the web to Flipboard.

    “If you’d like to be inspired, tap on ‘By Our Readers’ in the Content Guide, which contains a selection of magazines from staff and friends of Flipboard who’ve been experimenting with 2.0 in our beta program,” says Flipboard. “They include bloggers like Gardenista’s Michelle Slatalla, entrepreneurs like Kate Kendall, curators like Bureau of Trade’s Michael Phillips Moscowitz, small business owners like Elizabeth Leu, musicians like Linkin Park, and people with passions around graffiti, fashion, apps, horses, travel, food, kids and more. We’ll be highlighting many of them—and people like you!—in our blog in the coming weeks.”

    Other new features include: a new content guide, commenting, more recommended reading, subsections in partner magazines, newspapers and websites, fast section switching, and optional Facebook Open Graph integration.

    Flipboard’s redesign, of course, comes at a time when a lot of people are looking for replacements for Google Reader. For power users, Flipboard has hardly been an adequate alternative. Sure, it’s pretty, but for organizational and productivity purposes, it just hasn’t fit the bill. For the casual news reader, however, it’s an eye-pleasing experience, and possibly even better now.

    Flipboard has a reported 50 million users. It’s unclear when the new features will make their way to Android.

  • Google’s Slow Poisoning of Google Reader Continues

    Although Google Reader is still up and running smoothly for now, Google is continuing to slowly rid the internet of any traces of its existence.

    Reader, which used to be one of the main options on Google’s omnipresent black bar menu, is nowhere to be found. Not even in the “more” tab. Google, who previously stated that they would officially kill the product on July 1st, is prepping it for the kill by making it just a little bit harder to access every day.

    Last week, we told you that Google Reader had disappeared from the black bar menu inside Gmail and Google+. If you clicked on the “more” tab while on the main Google homepage or on Image search, Google Play, Google Calendar, and all of the other Google products, Google Reader was still a clickable option.

    Today we noticed that this is no longer true. No matter what Google product you’re currently using, the black bar menu no longer shows any trace of Google Reader.

    What is simply frustrating right now is probably for the best. Any inconvenience Google can throw up in the way of you using Google Reader will likely help you out in the long run, maybe force you to go ahead and look for an alternative. But as of now, the only two ways to access Google Reader is to go directly to google.com/reader or just search “reader.”