Brad Feld

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All Things NewsGator Except Sleep

May 10, 2006
Category Investments

I’ve got a couple of companies that are refreshing their products at least once a month.  The two most active right now are NewsGator and FeedBurner with multiple releases per month.  NewsGator just did another big release with major and minor things.

The major stuff includes the release of NetNewsWire 2.1.  NewsGator acquired NetNewsWire’s creator – Ranchero Software – in October 2005 – this is the first major release since the acquisition.  In addition to a number of new features, it includes universal binary support for Intel-based Macs (e.g. “very fast”) and full synchronization with the NewsGator family of products.  If you are a Mac user and want to try out the best RSS reader on the Mac, try a free trial of NetNewsWire.  Congrats Brent – beautiful job.

The minor stuff includes lots of little revs on NewsGator Online Service, a case study for Spencer Stuart on the use of NewsGator Enterprise Server, screen shots for the NewsGator Enterprise Server product, a podcast interview with me, and a platform push of some super secret cool stuff that will be released in the next 30 days.  Yup – minor stuff – but indicative of a regular release rhythm that is now hitting its stride.

Finally, in the major category, USATODAY.com launched the beta of My USA Today.  This is the latest NewsGator Private Label client to go live.  I think the guys at USA Today and NewsGator have done a stunning job on this – it’s still beta so likely to be slow and occasionally hiccupy as they get the kinks out now, but it’s an interesting approach to integrating RSS content into a major media property (e.g. for USA Today readers, not for power RSS users.)

Now – if I could only get on a normal sleep cycle.  Amy is purring away in the other room while I’m wide awake at 4:52 am Paris time doing email and posting to my blog. This always happens to me about the third or fourth day I’m in Europe – blech.