Does Digg want to replace Google Reader?

The social news website announced on its blog that it planned to “build an RSS reader from scratch.”

Google announced two weeks ago that it would be getting rid of its RSS reader, Google Reader. The service will be shut down on July 1. The company cited decreasing usage as the reason for the end of Google Reader. Google also stressed that the company was focusing on “pouring all of our energy into fewer products.” The company announced the end of the RSS reader on its blog.

The Digg blogpost garnered over 800 comments, a substantial number for the website that, facing long diminishing numbers, redesigned this summer: “Over 800 comments were left on last week’s blog post. That’s more than we received when we told the world we were rebuilding Digg itself.”

The company also took this to mean that there was a huge audience now looking for a new RSS reader, and most of the 800 comments were creative and practical input for a new way to organize and read the news.

“It’s proof that Google Reader users (and RSS devotees in general) are rabid information addicts with strong opinions,” Digg wrote in a second blog post. “We’re truly grateful for the input.”

The second Digg blog post, published Monday, laid out the site's plans for this new RSS reader, and specifically mentioned four points:

1. Keep it simple, stupid
2. Make it fast (like, really fast)
3. Synchronize across devices
4. Make it easy to import from existing Google Reader accounts

Digg admits it will be a massive undertaking to build what it believes will be Google Reader’s replacement, but is optimistic about the project: the first version is expected to be finished in the coming months.