Monday, June 17, 2013

Digg Reader to launch just days before Google Reader shutdown

The Google Reader shutdown is imminent, but don't fret! The team of engineers at Digg has been slaving away to make sure that Digg Reader will be ready to rock a few days before Google pulls the plug.

Digg Reader

Digg's crack unit consists of just five individuals and has been tasked with building "a web and mobile reading experience that is clean, simple, functional, and fast."

There's no question who Digg's target audience is for its Reader, either. It's aimed at power users, and that's obvious from some of the features that have been coded in for the initial launch.

First and foremost, Google sign-in is supported. That should give Digg Reader users a dead simple way to import their feeds — though you can always export your feeds using Takeout if you want to go the manual route for some reason. Digg Reader will also integrate with a number of popular third-party apps such as Instapaper and Pocket, and you'll be able to share items on Facebook, Twitter, and the like.

Mobile apps are in the works, too. iOS apps will be ready to go for launch day and Android versions will follow in the coming weeks.

digg reader app for iOS

Digg's crew also knows that power users want things like keyboard shortcuts that match up with Vim's key bindings. It's that kind of thoughtful touch that could make Digg Reader an instant hit with Google Reader refugees.

Now comes the tricky part. Digg Reader is scheduled for public launch on June 26th. That's just a few days before Google Reader shuts down, and Digg has already noted that doing RSS aggregation at scale can be a bit tricky. Hopefully Digg's servers are battened down in the next few days, because there's little doubt that geeky RSS fans will be waiting to pounce when the doors open.

Digg Reader to launch just days before Google Reader shutdown is a post from: Liliputing