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Digg Hints Its Replacement For Google Reader Will Include Social Media Content
RougeFemme writes "To capitalize on Google Reader's shutdown, Digg is building an RSS reader from scratch. But this Reader replacement will go beyond RSS to include social media content, like Facebook, Tumblr, Hacker News, Reddit, LinkedIn, etc. From their blog post: 'Google did a lot of things right with its Reader, but based on what we’re hearing from users, there is room for meaningful improvement. We want to build a product that’s clean and flexible, that bends easily and intuitively to the needs of different users. We want to experiment with and add value to the sources of information that are increasingly important, but difficult to surface and organize in most reader applications — like Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Reddit, LinkedIn, or Hacker News. We likely won’t get everything we want into v1, but we believe it’s worth exploring."
....to include social media content, like Facebook, Tumblr, Hacker News, Reddit, LinkedIn, etc.
That's improvement? Oh God! Idiocracy here we come at warp speed!
Wasn't Digg that site I used to visit as often as ./ before they whored themselves to advertisers to allow funded content to overtly make it to the front page instead of ACTUAL user submitted content?
BTW: yes - I'm aware lots of users were themselves industry shills, but at least it had the pretense of being a community-driven website.
Well, they evidently have someone to say that they are making an RSS reader that includes "features" that every other reader BESIDES Google reader had, so that's one. Perhaps they're now going to claim other apps as their own in addition to claiming content for their own?
I was excited briefly when I thought it said "will NOT include social media." Because that seems to be a rarity. Here's a wild thought guys: maybe the reason everyone was using google reader was because it did one thing and did it well, and didn't bug us about "LOGIN NOW with your Facebook, Tumblr, Hacker News, Reddit, LinkedIn, twitter, G+, Digg, stumbleupon, orkut, myspace, grindr, flickr, picassa, slashdot, memebase, youtube, fox news, and social security number to proceed."
If I want to see pictures of my friends from high school's babies pooping, I can load up facebook. If I want to go onto reddit, there are like a dozen apps for that.
One less Reader replacement I need to consider. Of course, having the Digg name attached to it was already a major demotivator for checking it out, but this seals it for me.
That's very smart.
I've always wished for a standard protocol for social media. It's probably not what you had in mind, but I'm thinking something like what Trillian was for IM services. I guess what I really want is social media without Facebook looking into everything I say and do.
Until then, I will remain for the most part blissfully unaware of most of the social media world except in the most passive way.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Kuro5hin is announcing a cloud storage service.
Shit, I totally read the exact opposite of what you meant. There's no way to delete my previous comment? This is embarrassing. My apologies.
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
This is why I am writing my own simple reader. Just check the feed to see if there are new posts and link me to them. It's all I want.
I've always wished for a standard protocol for social media.
And the social media website purveyors want anything but. People have been trying to hack together a way to show Facebook feed information minus all the advertising crap, the applications, the random way that it sometimes sorts by most recent and then spontaniously doesn't... the idea of "promoted" posts... it's all bullshit. The RSS feeds they had used to show your friends "feeds" as well, but then they crapped all over that, and they change their HTML and CSS code every few weeks in an aggressive attempt to prevent YOU from exporting your own data in a convenient, real-time fashion, while giving THEM (that is, their advertisers, app purveyors, etc.) full access to everything... as long as they don't publish it in a nice, convenient, standardized fashion for third parties to use. Right there in the EULA even.
I admire Digg's attempt to do this... but if they succeed, it will be at some terrible (privacy) price, if Mark F*ckerberg doesn't screw the pooch first.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Not Digg. No, just, no! There's so many things wrong with this.
Here comes Digg thinking Google Reader was just an RSS reader and now wants to join in on the replacement game. Great, so now we'll have a Bazillion and TWO RSS readers!
Google Reader was more than just an RSS client (which there have always been more than enough of). Google Reader was a feed manager and aggregator, with the ability to share posts from feeds and generate new feeds based on the combination of shared items along with a public API for all of it.
The loss of this functionality is pretty significant, especially since Google crushed and eliminated all competition in this field. This is what is needed.
One really important criteria for anyone attempting to fill in here, is that they have to be trust worthy long term. Many sites/companies invested a lot in Google Reader's infrastructure and are now feeling some serious pain as Google has abandoned it. The last thing we want to do is trust someone with a history of foolish abandonment.
So, Digg...
1) You apparently don't even understand what Google Reader is.
2) You have a horrible history of abandonment.
Here's a wild thought guys: maybe the reason everyone was using google reader was because it did one thing and did it well, and didn't bug us about "LOGIN NOW with your Facebook, Tumblr, Hacker News, Reddit, LinkedIn, twitter, G+, Digg, stumbleupon, orkut, myspace, grindr, flickr, picassa, slashdot, memebase, youtube, fox news, and social security number to proceed."
Exactly!
I detest social media inclusion in my reading list, (or anything else for that matter). I'm an adult, and don't need my friends approval or recommendations on what to read.
The problem is that Google hasn't found a way to monetize Reader, and they want to replace it with features in Google Plus, where they can package you and sell you to advertisers.
To date there is no good replacement for Google reader. They all want to foist image laden feeds to your reading list, because they believe you are illiterate and can't follow any story that doesn't start with pictures. That is not what RSS is about.
As long as you read on only one device and don't need cross-device syncing, there are some passable rss reader apps out there, but none that come close to the simplicity and purity of Google Reader.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
What's "Digg"?