Right after Google announced that they were shutting down Reader, social web stalwart Digg announced that they would be taking on the task of building a replacement. We haven’t heard much since then, but the Digg Blog this week gives a glimpse of the Digg Reader client for iOS and the web.
Priorities have been placed on speed, functionality, simplicity, and cleanliness of UI. In the next two months following the launch they’ll be adding some pretty vital stuff, such as integrating with third-party services, search, notifications, filtering, and rating options. Instapaper and Pocket integration will be available at launch.
Digg says that the initial release will focus on “the power user,” with a goal of making the software fast and simple. It also wants to enable easy feed importing from Google Reader.
Digg lists the core elements of the beta release as:
- 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.
Even though Digg had stated previously that Digg Reader would ultimately be a freemium app, they say all the features introduced next week, as well as many others yet to come, will be “part of the free experience.”
Digg Reader is scheduled to launch next week by the 26th.
