No Google Reader? No Problem: Canadian Startup Spundge Gains 10,000 new RSS Feeds
There’s nothing like cleverly seizing an opportunity. For Craig Silverman “it was one of the best days we’ve ever had.”
As widespread backlash and even a petition with 100,000 names continues to stir a whirlwind of discontent among Google Reader fans, one Montreal-based startup has soaked up 10,000 new RSS feeds.
Google announced on Wednesday night that July 1st will be the day of apocalypse for its popular RSS feed service. By Friday night a step-by-step video on its blog showing users how to switch over to its platform as an RSS alternative.
In just 24 hours the “Great Reader Exodus” (as Spundge’s blog dubbed it) saw over 10,000 RSS feeds imported into the platform.
“Reader hadn’t had a lot of work put into it in recent years which is really disappointing, but the reality is that there are a lot of other options out there that are far more advanced and can offer more value,” said Silverman, director of content and product strategy at Spundge. “We jumped on it really quickly and made sure that it was easy for people to bring their feeds into Spundge and to make them see that there was actually a lot more there than just reading RSS feeds and so far that’s had some really good results.”
The angel-funded Spundge launched in 2011, providing a platform to help people collaboratively discover, curate and create content. Cofounded by Richard Szalwinski and Jaun Pablo Di Lelle, the site features “notebooks” to organize different content sources into a single, real-time stream of relevant content. Everyone has an area of interest or expertise and Spundge enables them to easily invite other people to join and curate a topic.
A former journalist, Silverman and the team treated the opportunity as a breaking story.
“It was something that happened that was completely unexpected and that within the span of 24 hours had a really nice impact on our product and what we’re doing in the company,” he said.
For those still mourning over the loss of Google Reader Silverman has also provided five reasons why people should switch over to Spundge.
1. It’s a better way to organize your existing Reader feeds: the real value is that once your feeds are loaded into Spundge, you can sort them into Notebooks by subject matter, type etc.
2. You can scan feeds and social networks: Spundge isn’t just an RSS reader. It’s also a place where you can scan Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Flickr, Instagram, Reddit, Slideshare, SoundCloud and Vimeo
3. It’s collaborative: You can add friends and colleagues to your and enable them to read and add content. Add Notes to saved items to share ideas and comments, or share them directly to a social network.
4. You can embed Spundge Notebooks anywhere to share the best of what you’re reading: Save items into your Notebook and then grab an embed code and put a real-time stream of those items on any website.
5. Your saved items can be used to write blog posts and email newsletters: Spundge Pro enables you to access all your Notebook’s saved items and to quickly create blog posts and email newsletters that can be instantly published on any CMS (especially WordPress and Tumblr) or sent via MailChimp.
