NewsGator Outlook Edition 2.5 is Here!

As you know, NewsGator has worked with a single minded focus on providing the best RSS tools on the market.  In the last several weeks, we've made some BIG announcements, (the acquisition of FeedDemon; the addition of our podcasting receiver, FeedStation; the launch of our business and competitive intelligence offering, Business IQ).

We are so excited to be able to pull the sheets off our new Outlook release - NewsGator Outlook Edition 2.5.  We've had a ton of feedback from our user base and we were able to incorporate some very cool features into this release, including improved synchronization.  You can now synchronize:

• read/unread/delete status
• content and subscriptions
• folder structures 

AND...the synchronization works between multiple machines running NewsGator Outlook Edition, as well all all other editions provided within NewsGator Online.

If you are a current Outlook Edition user or are currently subscribed to one of our business plans, you're going to like this next part.  We've decided to give our current Outlook Edition users up to two years FREE, as a token of our appreciation for working through those early versions with us. You can get the details here, or follow this link to your user page (you'll need to login) and enter your license key to get your free upgrade.  Greg Reinacker has also posted detailed instructions on redeeming your current 2.0 license for your free upgrade.

The best part is that you'll get even more of all the great NewsGator services you've come to expect, including all the new features/functionality and updates that we'll be introducing over the next several months.  We will continue to expand our service base and are committed to continue improving the quality of your user experience.

Thanks for choosing NewsGator!

NewsGator Introduces Podcasting Support

This is so cool!  There is so much internet audio and video (vlogs) content out there, we knew we just had to get our subscribers a great way to not only find that content from within NewsGator Web Edition, but to download it to an iPod or other media device.  So, allow us to introduce you to the new beta version of FeedStation. 

FeedStation originated as the podcast receiver for FeedDemon.  Greg and Nick and the rest of the talented NewsGator team have now built on that fine tool to create the new beta version of FeedStation.  This new version now supports our online aggregator, NewsGator Web Edition and will be coming soon to Outlook Edition. 

One of the many cool features FeedStation offers (besides the fact that it's FREE to all our subscribers) is the ability to automatically download your podcasts from NewsGator Web Edition or FeedDemon directly to your media device.  That means you don't have to be anywhere near your iPod or media player to get your audio content loaded to it.  It'll be there waiting for you, whenever YOU are ready to listen.   

Greg Reinacker's post on FeedStation includes some great screen shots and more detailed data on how it works within NewsGator Web Edition. You can also view a demo on how to use FeedStation with NewsGator Web Edition.  Nick Bradbury's post includes a comprehensive overview of the offering, and a step-by-step for downloading and using FeedStation with both FeedDemon and NewsGator Web Edition.       

The introduction of FeedStation is another big step toward our primary objective...making sure our subscribers get the content they want, when and where they want it.  Download it now and start listening!

NewsGator takes RSS Reader to the "Next Level" with Business IQ

Today, NewsGator Technologies released the new Business IQ subscription service. The service is a combination of the Business Ultimate package with the addition of rich premium industry oriented content from Factiva. Its the perfect tool for those that want to keep ahead of their competition or just to keep on top of whats happening, day to day, in thier industry. You can select from up to 25 different vertical markets and get premium content via Factiva AND associated public market information that NewsGator has selected just for you. It also comes with an abundant number of Keyword feeds which allow the user to monitor whats being said about their competitors, their company, their products or even themselves. This is a very cool product and one that takes RSS aggregators/reader to the next level. Check it out here and there's also a demo.

FeedBurner and Market Share - Features and Functions always win!

Recently Robert Scoble made public his reader statistics through his FeedBurner subscription via Teja. Although Scobles stats aren't representative of the whole, he can certainly be identified as a proxy for the early adopter market given his "pioneer" status. NewsGators growth in the past 6 months or so has been phenomenal as evidenced by the attached stats. Plus, if you add in the recent acquisition of FeedDemon, it's us against Bloglines. The market speaks - features and functions always ultimately win!

What's Happening Now?

Greg posts about our Enterprise Server in beta.  How's this for a blog-era product description;

I got the URL of our internal Dino server in an email, clicked on it, and it automatically authenticated me via our AD domain and signed me in.  I found some feeds I wanted (ok, actually I imported my monster-sized OPML file from NewsGator Online), and added a couple of internal feeds I don't have in our online system.  I could then read my feeds with the Intranet site, just as one would expect.  And then, a couple of clicks later, my feeds started showing up in my Exchange mailbox.  Cool!

Pretty amazing -- a dozen wonderful companies around the world, some with thousands of seats, are participating.  Clear demand for RSS within the enterprise... kudos to the team that's cracked this hard problem ...

Nick has released the beta for the next rev of TopStyle, and found out that FeedDemon;

...is listed alongside Gmail, MovableType, Mac OS X, ICQ and Dreamweaver in TechWeb Pipeline's Software Hall of Fame.   

I snip infosnippets over on Enterprise RSS, among which this;

Infoworld's Matt McAlister: "The day InfoWorld's top news RSS feed received more requests than our home page, I started thinking a frightening thought - RSS is doing to the Web today what the Web has been doing to print for the last several years. We have disintermediated our Web site by offering our news in an easier to access format...again."

Second most-linked article in our online system right now?  Marketing Sherpa's 10 best marketing blogs.... (Scoble's comments on MS China beat out Business Week's "Power of Us").

Finally, in the 'it had to happen' category (did you read that the #1 single in the UK last week was a ring-tone?), Leland brings us this;

At Last, Karaoke Ringtones!

Watch for cool news from us at Gnomedex (or should I say, listen?)

Yes, Virginia, We Do Have a Free Web-Based Aggregator

It seems the best kept (but least closely guarded) secret about NewsGator is the fact that we offer a robust, FREE, web-based aggregator.  Interestingly, whenever a content provider points a reader to a list of aggregators, NewsGator invariably shows up as an Outlook tool, FeedDemon is always there in the desktop category, but we never seem to make the web-based (or free) list. 

Now, we've done a lot of work to make sure our users can get to their content from pretty much any where they happen to be, and on any device they choose, so maybe we shouldn't get so wound up about this.  After all, the goal is to be the best aggregator...period.  Sure, we want to be the best in each category - Outlook, web-based, desktop - but our ultimate goal is to provide the most value and the best user experience across all our tools...whichever one you happen to be using at the time.

So, we're happy to be seeing more blog posts like this one from edbott.com.

What Do You Use to Read RSS Feeds?

In tracking statistics to his site on who is subscribed to his feed, Ed noted that the three NewsGator offerings - NewsGator Outlook Edition, NewsGator Web Edition and FeedDemon - all found a place in his top ten, making NewsGator (by far) the most popular platform for his subscribers. 

So, for those of you who don't know, yes we do have a free (and awesome) web-based aggregator.  We also have the premier desktop and Outlook aggregators available.  We also provide the ability to access your (synchronized) content across all these tools, as well as mobile phones and PDAs and even your television sets (via Windows Media Center Edition).

Stay tuned...there's more to come!

Blogging for Business - Do you or don't you?

There has been a lot of talk, and some confusion, recently about whether or not businesses should create blogs to promote their products and services, technology, break throughs, open dialog with customers, and the list goes on and on.  I honestly don't understand what all the hub bub is ... just do it.  As a practical matter, weblogs are just another channel for reaching out to your customers and/or potential customers.  It is simple, integrated marketing communications ... isn't it?

I particularly enjoyed reading Richard Manning's article, "Blogging Is Not Fundamental."  I think he raises some very interesting points.  For example,

"What concerns me about blogs is the signal to noise ratio -- do we really need all these niche, special-interest blogs, or will it become increasingly difficult to find relevance amidst the seas of personal web journals (or diatribes) without much to offer the broader constituency?"

Well, let me introduce you to NewsGator Technologies.  Here at NewsGator we develop tools to work around the clutter on the web.  Let me give you a hypothetical example. 

The director of on-line marketing for Worldwide Delivery Company A monitors RSS feeds via NewsGator.  She uses her SmartFeeds to monitor all kinds of industry information and competitive content (and to avoid irrelevant content or clutter).  One day someone in the blogosphere mentions a problem he had with Worldwide Delivery Company B ... maybe it was a user error ... maybe there was actually a problem.  At this point the problem is irrelevant ... he complained about you and your competitor knows, and can reach out to him directly and convert his allegiance.  Then he will blog about how the director of marketing for Company A contacted him directly ... and the rest is history. 

This, of course, is a very simplistic example, but would you consider that scenario relevant?  Richard, I would like to personally invite you to our upcoming webinar on business blogging at the end of June.  Dave Taylor, renowned on-line communications strategist, will be the guest speaker.  He (and I, but I am no expert) disagrees with your position on blogging and we would love to have you join us for the webinar ... we might just change your mind?

Anyone else out there who would like to learn about the advantages of blogging for your business and/or monitoring the blogosphere via NewsGator's RSS aggregation tools... you can contact me directly at jennifers@newsgator.com or just post here in the comments section.  A formal invitation will be posted early next week.

Yep...

We love when others write posts with these headlines:

Michael Gartenberg - Is Newsgator poised to become the "RSS Company"

Our answer, of course, is 'yes'.  As Greg's post on our product plans indicated, that's exactly where we are, and are headed. (And, as Nick's post pointed out, Greg's post has in itself accelerated that objective.  Take that, RSS PR skeptics!)

I had a fun conversation with a big group from one of the world's top media companies about RSS, reading, aggregation, and life yesterday. One of the vital meme's running about is that 'synch' will become more and more central to the 'my media' experience. 

I want my content where and when I want it ... and only once.  Or, as Gartenberg put it:

I want ubiquitous RSS and it looks like these folks might just be the ones to get it to me.

(And everybody wants their podcasts .. thankfully, FeedDemon shows all of us the way...)

Yesterday's media conversation was echoed interestingly this morning in a talk with another media company, which observed that the Asian I.T. industry outside China (think; Vietnam) is poised to leapfrog not only the U.S. .. but even China... World-class skills, little tiny expenses...

To sum up in one hyper-mangled metaphor;  RSS can be traditional media's Vietnam, which in 2005 means the platform from which to leapfrog the brand into the future...

We've positioned NewsGator to be the RSS Company to help you get there first...