Google and NewsGator – What’s It All About?

We announced today that our best-of-breed consumer applications will synchronize with Google Reader going forward.  We announced yesterday that we’ve hit the 1 million enterprise user mark.  As part of the announcement about our relationship with Google we also announced that we’re ending support for a range of free consumer applications including NewsGator Online by the end-of-August.

2500 tweets and one hour later (my personal favorite tweet so far;  “otherniceman too drunk to understand what is happening with Newsgator and Google”) seemed like a good time to clarify a couple of things.

1. What does this really say about NewsGator?  The meme here is focus – our enterprise social computing business has exploded beyond our dreams (for which RSS is the primary enterprise application integration protocol – woo hoo!) and we felt it’s important to insure we have a tight focus on that opportunity.  The consumer products are part of that – FeedDemon and NetNewsWire have huge fan bases among our enterprise customers.  But we’d grown to the point where we had over 60 different SKUs, most of which had very small audiences … so we developed a strategy to give those audiences a path forward while allowing us to focus.
2. Why stop NewsGator Online and some of the other free applications?  The vast bulk of consumer users of our products use NetNewsWire, FeedDemon, and NetNewsWire for the iPhone.  We have a pretty limited audience for the consumer apps that we’re not going to continue to support, including Online.  We felt that as we add Google Reader synch for our best-of-breed consumer apps we would take the opportunity to focus our portfolio and activities where we have big audiences; where we continue to innovate; and where we’re generally headed as a company.  NetNewsWire, FeedDemon, NetNewsWire for the iPhone; our DataServices, TapLynx, and widget businesses; and our rocketing enterprise businesses are where we’ll focus our efforts going forward.  As we announced, ALL of the consumer applications will continue to be supported for our Enterprise customers.
3. Why Google Reader/Google Synch?  We looked for the best online reader companion, and online synchronization platform option, for our consumer applications … and of course have had tons of requests for synch with Google as well.  Google was clearly the best option for an online companion to the consumer readers we’ll continue to innovate and support.
4. Why ads in the consumer applications?  We are heading toward two versions – those with ads and forthcoming for-pay versions without ads.  We feel that the quality of the apps is such that these are fair deals.  We hope you’ll agree.
5. Are FeedDemon, NetNewsWire, and NNW iPhone all going to continue to be developed?  Will consumer versions have at least as much functionality as enterprise versions?  Yes, and yes. 
6. Isn’t it sad that NewsGator Online is going to go away?  OK, I’ll admit I’ll miss it.  But I’ll also tell you that the vast bulk of my content consumption time personally is integrated into my use of our Social Sites platform internally.  (Well, and FeedDemon.  And NetNewsWire for the iPhone).  So I’m sad … but I’m getting more, faster than ever, via NewsGator’s technologies.

We announced a whole bunch of stuff today to insure everyone who was affected had a clear way forward.  But if you’re still unclear, or concerned, let us know (comments to this post work) and we’ll respond as fast as we can.

Thanks,

J.B. Holston
President and CEO

Comments

[Ryan]

What if we already paid for NetNewsWire? Back when it wasn't free, I bought it. Then it became free, and now going forward there's going to be an option to pay to disable ads. So I'll have to pay for it again to get the ad-free functionality I already had?

[Michael Sippey]

JB -- retiring a product is never an easy thing to do, but this sounds like a great move for you guys. Onward!

[Enrico Franconi]

Well, I moved my Mac NetNewsWire application to the new version, synced with Google. And now... my iPhone app does not sync anymore with it. What should I do?
cheers
--e.

[deuts]

Where exactly do we expect to see the ads?

[Doug]

Woohoo! I've been requesting Google Reader sync for ages, and I'm one of the people who paid for NNW when it was ~$30. Glad to hear it's being added and I can go back to using a real app for my desktop RSS and not having to stick to the web anymore.

Thanks Brent (for NNW) and thanks NewsGator.

[stacy d]

Will this affect my flagged items that I have saved in FeedDemon?

[Anon E. Mouse]

Dropping MobileMe sync from NNW is a move that will probably make me switch readers. I have no desire to sign up for a Google Reader account -- I have too many accounts with too many services already, and don't want to tell Google any more about myself than absolutely necessary.

It may have been the easy thing to do. But that doesn't make it the right thing to do.

Just sign me "peeved and looking for alternatives."

[Brad Spachman]

Although I'll be sad to see NG Online go, I'm glad there is a migration path to continue syncing for those of us using NNW desktop and iPhone clients. However, a worry I have is that I currently use NNW on a variety of OSes, dating back to 10.3, and upgrading the OSes to 10.5 is not an option.

Is there any likelihood of backporting the Google Reader Sync feature to a version of NNW that will run under 10.4 or earlier?

brad

[Ankur]

One question that's not been addressed in the FAQ on transition instructions: How do I move my clippings on newsgator online? There doesn't seem to be any export functionality...

It seems I can subscribe to my clippings as a feed, but that will go away as well, right?

[Igor]

I've paid for NNW $30 too and since that time it's my favorite RSS reader. It's a pity the time has come to say goodbye to NNW, but I won't pay again to get rid of the ads.

As well I don't want to share my RSS feeds with Google. As it is Google knows about me too much to add some additional info.

Now I have to check Vienna, Schrook and NewsFire.

So goodbye and thanks for all the fish!

[Steve]

What about those FD users who paid for the product, never wanted the free version or the 'in your face' ads, so don't want to upgrade to another new version?

Seems some of us, who paid good money, are getting ignored. Time to go check the open source market, again.

[Christopher San-Claire]

Thank you for Feeddemon a great product & service, even though I paid for it at the begining it was not a problem for something that did what it said and was meant for, and have been using it ever since.

The ads don’t bother me at all I understand that by making it free revenue had to be made somehow to maintain the system and development.

What upsets me is that it’s Google that’s take it. I do not support Google in anyway; don't like it and never will so as for me I think it’s the end of the line with Feeddemon when the time comes.

Again thank you for a great product and service wish that had been other alternatives but I see the mass wins again.
Christopher San-Claire

[Jurgen Proschinger]

I paid for NNW when it cost $30. I've used the product for many years, and I'm sad that the only option forward is: Google! I'm one of the people who does not like Google! I don't want to have ONE company having access to everything I read and write and plan. Sorry. I'm happy to pay for NNW. Even more for Newsgator Online, as Google Reader is ugly and lacking functionality. Newsgator Online is far superior! I reckon you make a big mistake here. I'd also like to know if there will be an upgrade path for users who had paid for NNW previously before it became a free product.

[Steph Mineart]

So I would summarizing this correctly to say that you only care about the user experience of people in enterprise settings, and you can afford to jettison everyone else?

Good luck with that attitude. Some of us using your free service are also clients and potential clients on the enterprise side, too.

Or at least we were.

[Jmes]

I've got the same question as in Ryan's first comment, except about Feeddemon instead of NNW.

I've already paid for Feedemon - I hope I don't have to pay again.

[Larry Hawes]

Nice clarification, J.B.; thanks! It's very good to see that NewsGator is focused on the enterprise opportunity to the point that you are willing to adjust product mix and partnerships to maximize resources available to that business. -- Larry

[Doug]

Ubersweetastic. Best news of the week. Assuming that pricing will be in line with what NNW cost before, sign me up.

[rivereka]

I am definitely unhappy with this announcement. For the company, I can understand why this move was made, but as a formerly very happy enduser, this pretty much ends my relationship with the company and the products. Google Reader is my least liked RSS reader, and what's more, it doesn't support authenticated feeds. I know there are arguments ongoing about authenticated feeds, but I am a heavy reader of authenticated feeds, and I now have to hunt for a new solution and hope that it can provide what I used to have with NNW/NGO/NGG.

So far no luck, but I'm still searching. I, like a few others who have commented, have no desire to hand Google any more information than they already have.

[Laura Farrelly]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for all of the comments and feedback. We will periodically update our FAQs to address themes we are seeing in the twitter, blog, and other feedback channels. Here are the links to our updated resources:

Product Transition Instructions: http://www.newsgator.com/productinfo/producttransition.aspx

FAQS: http://www.newsgator.com/productinfo/consumerinfo.aspx

Thanks,

NewsGator

[Jason Grunstra]

I'm a bit confused about clipping folders for FeedDemon and how they transfer (or do they?) to the new system.

I've been a long time paying customer (since 2004) when Nick was still running the show.

I hope clippings folders aren't going away. I use them daily and I have co-workers that subscribe to my clipping folders RSS feeds.

[Morten]

Any chance you could postpone the deadline a month or so, so those of us not upgrading to OS X 10.5 can get 10.6 and then get to use NNW (which doesn't work on 10.4)?

[mike]

I just really don't want anything to do with google reader. I need the organization structure I have in place. I need to be able to swap between difference reader profiles that I've designed, etc.

The fact is, Google Reader just isn't good. Not having folders sucks. Dealing with it's web based structure isn't good, etc. Vienna worked alright but given my use of a number of platforms, this was a better solution. I'm very disappointed this won't continue.

[pb]

What OHE are you doing? You are breaking apart the best RSS-reader/syncer on earth, dropping features, and replacing it with Google's stuff that lacks some features as well and is half as elegant as the current version. I realy do not understand why you do this: this is a true destructive move!

[Doug]

NetNewsWire just destroyed my confidence in NNW by randomly erasing Google Reader subscriptions (down from 151 to 30 "automagically"). :(

In the future, I would suggest that you don't prompt NNW users to upgrade to beta versions if they are this unstable...

[Dan]

why my all feeds have been disappear??is that normal??