Upset About Google Reader Dying? Digg Is Making A Replacement

Andrew McLaughlin

Social news sharing website Digg just announced its plans to build an RSS reader platform.

"Like many of you, we were dismayed to learn that Google will be shutting down its much-loved, if under-appreciated, Google Reader on July 1st," Digg's Andrew McLaughlin writes on the company blog. "Through its many incarnations, Google Reader has remained a solid and reliable tool for those who want to ensure they are getting the best from their favorite sections of the Internet. And though they were not wholly appreciated at the time, Reader’s early social features were forward-thinking and hugely useful."

Digg actually already had plans to build a reader product in the second half of 2013, but in light of Google announcing its plans to shut down Reader, it's now a top priority.

"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," McLaughlin writes. "Don’t get us wrong: we don’t expect this to be a trivial undertaking. But we’re confident we can cook up a worthy successor."

In order to complete the product by July 1, Digg is asking for help. It wants to know what people would want to see in a reader product, what problems it should solve, and what features should be included in it.

Digg hopes to launch its reader product before Google shuts down its Reader on July 1. In the event that it doesn't, there's already a pretty good alternative called Feedly.