NewsGator Buys FeedDemon
This Word DOC was sent to me a few days before it went public, so… I saw it fit to post it here (as that's usually what folks want when they send me such attachments). Usually, when you see text in a typewritten font here, it's not my own. ;)
Q: What is FeedDemon?
Nick: FeedDemon is the premier desktop RSS
reader for Windows. FeedDemon's comprehensive feature set has made it a hit
with power users, while those new to RSS have praised its intuitive
interface for making it easy to get started.Q: How does FeedDemon fit into NewsGator's plans?
Greg: At the core of NewsGator's system is
the NewsGator Online platform. This platform distributes user-selected
content to wherever a user might choose:
- Web edition - lets users read content on our subscriber web site
- Mobile edition - read content on a mobile phone or PDA
- Outlook edition - read content inside Microsoft Outlook
- Email edition - read content in an e-mail client
- Media Center edition - view content on a TV
What NewsGator lacked was a downloadable desktop product. FeedDemon, as the
leading Windows-based desktop aggregator, fills this gap perfectly, and we’
re excited to join forces with Nick to fill out the platform.There is also some cool technology in FeedDemon (for example, the podcasting
support) that we’re looking forward to integrating across our product line
in the near future..Q: NewsGator Online? Eh? I thought NewsGator was some kind of plug-in
for Microsoft Outlook.Greg: Our first product was an Outlook
add-in, now called NewsGator Outlook edition. Since then, however, we’ve
added a lot of depth to our product line, and built a lot of new products
and services on the NewsGator Online platform. NewsGator is unique not just
because of its integration with Microsoft Outlook, but because our platform
supports the widest array of devices and user experiences, completely
synchronized, of anyone in our industry.Nick: That’s actually what got me
interested…Q: But Nick, I thought you were doing just fine. Why are you doing this
with NewsGator?Nick: Well, over the past year I’ve heard
countless customers asking to be able to synchronize their feeds between
computers – they want to use FeedDemon at work, at home, while traveling,
etc., and not have to read the same articles again just because they’re
using a different computer. This has been – by far – the number one request
from FeedDemon customers. But doing this right required a server-side piece
that was beyond what my one-person company could handle, so I knew I needed
to join forces with someone. Then I read the “NewsGator platform roadmap”
post in Greg’s blog, in which he outlined NewsGator’s plans – and right then
I knew NewsGator was the company I needed to join with.Q: Come on, Nick. You’re just selling to the highest bidder before the
market gets too crowded, right?Nick: Sure I’d like to strike it rich –
wouldn’t you? But if I was in this solely for the money, I’d form a company
around FeedDemon myself and hire a team of programmers to maintain it. But
that would take me away from development, which is what I love doing. It
came down to this: keep developing FeedDemon as a one-man company and not be
able to take it where my customers need it to go, or team up with someone
who already has the technology in place that enables me to take FeedDemon to
a whole new level. I chose the latter.Q: Are there going to be changes in FeedDemon as a result of this?
Nick: Certainly. The most obvious will be
that FeedDemon will integrate very closely with NewsGator’s online
synchronization platform, enabling using FeedDemon on multiple computers
while maintaining state – that is, unread/read/deleted status – between all
of them. You could even use FeedDemon on your home computer, NewsGator
Outlook Edition while at work, and NewsGator Mobile Edition while traveling,
and still have everything synched between devices.Beyond that, having a server-side piece offers a lot of interesting
possibilities. Coupling a rich desktop client with a first-rate server-side
aggregator provides the best of both worlds: you get the power of a Windows
application *and* all the flexibility of a web-based approach. There have
been a number of features I’ve wanted to add to FeedDemon that required a
server-side piece – related items, the most talked-about articles, etc. –
which I can now provide.Q: I’ve been a FeedDemon customer since the beginning. What will happen
to me?Nick: So, here’s the deal: NewsGator uses a
subscription model, and FeedDemon will become part of their subscription
plans. All existing FeedDemon customers will get a two-year business
standard subscription for *free* - and this includes upgrades to FeedDemon.
In other words, you’ll get brand new versions of FeedDemon and a
subscription to NewsGator Online *free* for the next two years.Q: I’ve been a NewsGator customer for a long time. Sounds like the
FeedDemon users get a lot of cool new stuff…what do I get?Greg: All paying NewsGator subscribers will
be able to use FeedDemon for no additional charge. This will happen as of
the next FeedDemon release, scheduled for June.I’m so excited about that I have to say it again. All premium NewsGator
subscribers will get FeedDemon for free!Q: Is Nick going to work for NewsGator? Is he moving to Denver? What
will his role be?Greg: Nick is indeed coming to work for
NewsGator, as Architect of Client Products. I’m personally very excited to
add Nick’s vision and expertise to our company. He’ll continue to work on
FeedDemon, but will also add his considerable expertise to our product and
platform strategy moving forward. Some of his focuses, other than
FeedDemon, will be on user interface and interaction design across the
platform, and some of the rich media development we’re working on. And I
think he’s moving to Denver.Nick: Umm, no, I’m not actually moving.
Greg: Oh. There I go again – heh. Ok, Nick’s
not moving…but he’ll be spending a lot of time with our team in Denver
moving forward, and as I said, we’re all looking forward to working closely
with him.Q: I thought NewsGator was all about Enterprise RSS. Isn’t buying
FeedDemon just a distraction from this?Greg: NewsGator’s products are all based on
the powerful NewsGator Online platform – delivering the content you want, at
any time, on any device. FeedDemon completes this platform footprint in an
important way, by providing a strong presence on the desktop to add to the
strong e-mail client support we have for syndicated content. So FeedDemon
is helping us deliver on the “any time, any place, any device” vision – for
all of our customers, including enterprise customers.In the future, FeedDemon will also be a client for our upcoming Enterprise
product (tentatively named NewsGator Enterprise Server), further extending
its value into the enterprise.Q: Will FeedDemon become the basis for the downloadable applications
built for NewsGator Media Platform customers?Greg: While many NewsGator Media Platform
(NMP) customers are completely web- and API-based, others prefer a
downloadable application. The first example of this is the News Hound
application that we’re delivering for the Denver Post.These downloadable applications are currently not based on the FeedDemon
code base; however, moving forward, this may change. FeedDemon is an
extremely feature-rich application, and will become even more so as it’s
integrated more tightly with the NewsGator Online platform. This will be a
good fit for certain NMP customers who desire this level of functionality on
the client.Q: How long will NewsGator continue to support TopStyle? Will there be
new versions of that product?Nick: While the acquisition obviously came
to pass because of FeedDemon, NewsGator has made it clear that they’re
committed to TopStyle as well. This was an important part of the deal for
me. I use TopStyle every single day, and I personally couldn’t work without
it. I’m already working on TopStyle 3.12, which will be a free upgrade for
all TopStyle customers, and this will be released as a NewsGator product.And to illustrate their commitment to TopStyle, NewsGator has already hired
Jack Brewster to help support it. Jack has been a frequent contributor to
my support forums over the years - sometimes I think he knows TopStyle and
FeedDemon better than I do – so having him on board will be a great help to
both myself and my customers.Greg: Right. Like Nick said, we’ve already
added resources to support the TopStyle product, and we intend to continue
doing so indefinitely.Q: Is NewsGator committed to continued development for FeedDemon? What
will happen with FeedDemon? How about TopStyle?Greg: This is a strategic acquisition for us,
and we’re strongly committed to both products. We’ve already added
resources to support both products, and enhancements are already underway
for both FeedDemon and TopStyle.Nick: Look, I can’t predict the future, and
I certainly couldn’t have predicted that HomeSite would be acquired by
companies that weren’t sure what to do with it. But I don’t sell my
products just to see them wither and die. If anything, this acquisition
breathes new life into my software – let’s face it, there’s a limit to what
a one-man company can do, and I reached that limit a long time ago!For at least the past year, I’ve spent far more time doing support,
marketing and sales than I have doing actual design and development.
Joining forces with NewsGator enables me to focus more on development again,
and I’m really excited by that.Q: What will happen to FeedDemon's integration with Bloglines? Will be
it dropped? Improved?Greg: FeedDemon will continue to work with
Bloglines as it does today. However, moving forward, we feel that the
features we want to add require stronger API and feature support than that
provided by Bloglines, so future development will concentrate on integration
with the NewsGator Online platform.Nick: I’m sure it’s obvious that NewsGator
and Bloglines are competitors in the web-based aggregator arena, but we’re
not going to drop FeedDemon’s support for Bloglines. If you want to use
FeedDemon with Bloglines, you’ll continue to be able to do so. But given
that I’ve joined forces with NewsGator, you can expect that our focus will
be on improving FeedDemon’s integration with NewsGator’s online services.
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6 Comments
Anonymous
May 16th, 2005
at 8:00pm
worst. interview. ever.
A bunch of insiders doing the old circle j.
Anonymous
May 17th, 2005
at 11:13am
u suck man
#!/usr/bin/geek
May 17th, 2005
at 12:17pm
I hope they're going to continue to develop and support TopStyle as they say. I couldn't live without it. In fact its the one program that really stops me from completely moving to Mac or Linux.
Judi Sohn
May 18th, 2005
at 4:37am
I read this on Lockergnome sites and thought, “gee, it looks familiar.” Sure enough it's word for word (without attribution) from the FeedDemon FAQ located on the NewsGator site here: http://www.newsgator.com/feeddemon.aspx
Judi Sohn
May 19th, 2005
at 6:34am
No, I didn't see the other articles. I don't read these pages regularly. I came here from another link which said that Chris Perillo had interviewed the players in the deal so I came here expecting original content. Look at all the trackbacks…”Also, Pirillo interviews Greg Reinacker (NewsGator) and Nick Bradbury (FeedDemon/Bradbury Soft)” “Chris Pirillo interviews Nick Bradbury on why he sold FeedDemon to Newsgator.” Apparently those folks don't have the secret “if it's typewriter font it's a rip from another site” decoder ring, either.
Those sites believe they're posting to the source otherwise they would have pointed to the FAQ at the NewGator site. Agree with me, disagree with me, I don't care…but I think it's a bit slimey for an advertising-stuffed site to copy an entire page from another site and not link back to the source. If I copied and pasted the entire transcript of an Oprah Winfrey show interview with Julia Roberts and never said it was an Oprah show, it would be wrong if people gave *me* credit for interviewing Julia Roberts. In and of itself, this little thing is no big deal. But for me, it calls into question anything I read here…is it a sponsored ad? Is it a rip off from another site? I would think credibility counts for something, maybe not. Maybe it's all about click-through rate.
newsgutor
July 18th, 2005
at 8:42am
Dear my friend, Feeddemon is dead after it was bought by newsgator. It is a nwsgator online subscription server based appendage.
We consumer need to show some point. Not just simply let those corporations does whatever they want. They have the captial, They can buy feeddmon. For me it’s like I bought feeddemon I bought the house and I own the house. I am the landlord. Suddently after newsgator bought the house, feeddemon goes activated by paid newsgator online account instead of the key number I bought. I became a tenant not a landlord in my own house–feeddemon. Cause the upgrade policy is that I can have all the feeddemon minor upgrade untill 2.0 version. Now, everytime I reinstall feeddemon I need a paid-online newsgator account to activate it. It’s a monthly bill also.
Hi my friend,I want to tell you something about nickÂ’s promising is a lie:
feeddemon wonÂ’t work after your subscribtion runs out.
To prove this point, I already did a experiment. I used my credit card to updgrade my account to business standard. Then I installd feeddemon 1.6beta fine when I activated it with my business standard account.
Then I canceled my subscribition in the trail period, tried to reinstall my whole system including windows and feeddemon 1.6beta. Again feeddemon needed me to put my account to active it. But this time it wasnÂ’t activated. Cause my account wasnÂ’t a paid account anymore.
So nick is lieing about once you own feeddemon, you own it forever.
If you donÂ’t reinstall your windows, off course feeddemon will be fine even after your subscription runs out. But who can guarantee you wonÂ’t need to reinstall your windows. For exemple, you system is scrwed up by virus and then you need to reinstall your whole system, then again you wonÂ’t be able to activate without a paid newsgator account. Since newsgator server canÂ’t tell the diffrence between ex-paid customer and never-paid customer.
So I can't protect my investment on the feeddemon againast all oods!
Answering me, my dear listening frind.
I spend two hours to reinstall my system and just want to prove nickÂ’s promise and protect myself own and the rest hardcore feeddemonÂ’s fanÂ’s invesment on a piece of software we used to like so much.
The fact is that:
Why you put yourself into this unpredicatable pain.
Feeddemon already died as a stand alone news reader. Cause itÂ’s gonna be newsgator paid serviceÂ’s add-on. Newsgator is not a software company. They sell the service. Ridiculously the service is about that you need to pay to see your feeds even when feeds is everywhere these days.
They bought feeddemon. They ainÂ’t plan to sell the feeddemon software but to kill feeddemon market. ItÂ’s like if you wanna use feeddemon after this you are gonna paid for newsgatorÂ’s feeds subscibing service. If you wonÂ’t paid for it, you wonÂ’t see your feeds synchronized anymore.
This is exactly pain in the ***. They rent the software to you to let you see the feeds you paid for but you can read somewhere else for free?
Is this logical?
So if you donÂ’t want to rent the software for ever and never own it, itÂ’s time to leave feeddemon now. ItÂ’s soon or later. Cause they donÂ’t even use serial number to activate product anymore. You need to use your paid online newsgator account to activate it. So nickÂ’s post about rethinking is a lie. You donÂ’t have a paid account, you wonÂ’t able to activate feeddemon after you subscribition expires. Cause you donÂ’t have a paid newsgator account anymore. If your computer screws up one day, you need to reinstall your whole system including feeddemon but you wonÂ’t be able to activate it in that period of time without a paid newsgator online account.
What you gonna do then? Or other situations similar like this.
ItÂ’s time to screw up feeddemon as a stand alone newsgator for now. Cause its core is rotten now. ItÂ’s not a software anymore. ItÂ’s a door in the desktop environment you need to pay to pass to see the feeds free everywhere else just like newsgator outlook edition is not a software anymore but a door in the outlook environment you need to pay to pass to see the feeds free everywhere else.
This is newsgatorÂ’s plan: kill you free pass in the desktop via feeddemon to news and rss and free pass in the outlook environment via outlook newsgator addon. Instead they build up two doors for you to rent to pass. At the end, news and rss is not free anymore. You need to pay to see it.
Feeddemon is dead as a software. ItÂ’s a server based appendage like newsgator outlook version, itÂ’s like you need to pay to receive hotmail via outlook. But outlook still allow you to receive other email service like yahoo, feeddemon is newsgator server based only and wonÂ’t allow you to use any other service other than newsgator.monopoly.
ItÂ’s time for some other news aggregators to take over the empty space left by feeddemon and newgator in desktop and outlook news aggregator market.
Here they rise:Greatnews,intraVnews ,blogbot,rssowl,Awasu,Attensa!
Check out greatnews man(www.curiostudio.com/).
ThereÂ’s 4 major reasons why I love it:
1. It synchronizes with bloglins. Folder hierarchy is synchronized between Bloglines and Greatnews as well. you feel really comfortable to organize your feeds. You know how it sucks for feeddemon to synchronize with bloglines. Cause feeddemon only imports opml from bloglines without Folder hierarchy at all. So itÂ’s a very hard for me to find a specfic feed and to organize those feeds. In all the desktop news clients, GreatnewsÂ’s synchronization with bloglines leaves rest news aggregators in dust. ItÂ’s like use outlook express to receive hotmail. Once you receive all the news from bloglines server in greatnews, all the news will be flagged read on bloglines online edition.If you love bloglines, you feel at home.
2. ItÂ’s extremely small. It only takes 800kb or so to install. You can even install it on a usb flash drive or even a floppy disk. So you take it everywhere to connect to Pc to use it. How cool is that?! ItÂ’s like you have yourself own mini newsgator server which can gurantee you wonÂ’t read the same news twice.
3. It runs with only a tiny memory and cpu engaged. So you wonÂ’t even notice it when it updates news in the background.
Above all itÂ’s free.
There are still some sweet points about greatnews I can tell you below just in case you can put a relevant review in your website to let more people to be aware of a sweet piece of software, to less their pain of losing feeddemon.Here we go:
* 100% Unicode support. Displays international languages on the same page. Use any languages anywhere in GreatNews, including Search, Label and News watch. Like I read japanese news to do a research, greatnews displays all these south asian news so well including japanese, Chinese, whatevernese. Feeddemon canÂ’t do this . As far as I know, feeddemon canÂ’t support hebrew news,japanese news, and chinese news well.
** Full text search with keyword highlights. ItÂ’s very productive when you consider get things done.
* Integrated internet browser, with popup blocking. Working closely with default browser like Firefox. A kill point to please firefox fan.
* “Channel Organizer� helps organize channel subscriptions in one place. Use “Find Channel� to locate your subscriptions quickly. Again a great get things done tool.
* With Import/Export wizard, you can import/export all channel subscriptions in a single step.
* Export rss articles to rss 2.0 format. You can also customize the export by selecting channel/group/label, and/or applying filters.
*you can use ’search channel’ to keep eyes on special subject like ‘Ipod’, Like using feeddemon’s search channel and newsgator’s smart feeds. The difference is that smart feeds isn’t free but greatnews is.
ItÂ’s a such a sweet software. Even itÂ’s roughly half an year old with its debut in 02/18/2005. Very promising. We wonÂ’t miss feeddemon that much.
The developers makes such a blowing software to offer it to the world free. I think as a strong believer in good software and unbeliever in subscription-based software, we should offer a little help to these generous and talented dudes.IÂ’m a hugh fan of your The Great Software List. We can spread the words. Just like in the explorer, we spread firefox. In the Rss world, we should spread software like greatnews against newsgator evil software subscribtion model.
Greatnews is a very strong desktop newsreader. Even On the server side, it has a strong bloglins synchronization api even when you say this api is not perfect, but at least itÂ’s free and still improved. It can compete newsgator in two categories: on the desktop news aggregator environment, and on the server api category which is a very strong api supported by bloglines. ItÂ’s like you can use outlook express to receive hotmail without going hotmail plus.
Such a promising and helpful software shouldnÂ’t die without our support. If thatÂ’s the plan, we will have no place to turn to but evil subscribtion like newsgator since they already bought the so-called best desktop news agregator feeddeon. I always remembr that day as a sad day and a betray when nick gave up hard-core feeddemon fans like me to surrender to newsgator corporate money promising future. Since then, the destiny child of desktop news aggregator market died!
I am not doing any favor for any other newsgators. ItÂ’s newsgator itself kill their market. Nick broke his hardcore fansÂ’s heart. I was feeling homeless in Rss World Once I test feeddemon 1.6 beta. I once own my house, now I rent it. I am homeless. I want to own my house. ThatÂ’s why I start looking.
The way we leave a disapointed business is the way we customer show those greedy corporation our point. Their intension is maximumizing their profit. Like newsgator, instead of selling software, they rent them. They are the landdord, we arenÂ’t. They are very smart to explain how cheap the new subcription model is. It sounds like they are charity. We arenÂ’t idiot. We all know that it requires more money to buy a house rather than rent a house in a short term. But in the long run, we lose money when we keep renting house. Landdord is always the winner.
Microsoft charge you when you receive your hotmail via outlook, but you still can choose not to,cause there are some very other nice email service you can use with outlook. Newsgator donÂ’t even give you a choice. This is a big ignorance to customerÂ’s needs. Imagine one day microsoft start activate windows with a pre-paid microsoft passport account. I tell you what. I am gonna be the first one to jump on appleÂ’s ship. But microsoft are smart enought not to destroy themself like that. Obviously newsgator canÂ’t see the point. They are too eager to maxmumizing their profit as a pretending-to-be-kind landlord. Too greedy to not hurt customerÂ’s heart.
Leave them let them feel pain. If they see us gone and lose the money theyÂ’re supposed to make. They maybe appoligize for their mistake and correct it. Untill that day, itÂ’s time to say bye-bye.
Newsgator listen, don't try to put your hands in my pocket forever. A monthly bill? I am not loving it.