The fact that technology journalists and heavy Twitter users were also the key demographic using the Google Reader RSS service makes the online outcry over its closure seem enormous. In reality, the rest of the world is blissfully unaware.
Still, companies are jockeying for position to replace Google Reader when it shuts later this year. Digg is the latest to throw its hat into the ring, promising to build a reader that “makes the Internet a more approachable and digestible place”.
The company – a reborn version of the veteran technology news aggregator – published a blog post yesterday on its plans. “After Google’s announcement, we’re moving the project to the top of our priority list. We’re going to build a reader, starting today,” it said.
“We hope to identify and rebuild the best of Google Reader’s features (including its API), but also advance them to fit the Internet of 2013, where networks and communities like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit and Hacker News offer powerful but often overwhelming signals as to what’s interesting.”
This may position Digg alongside Feedly – which published its own blog post welcoming panicked Google Reader users earlier in the week – as the best replacement for Google’s RSS reader.
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