NewsGator now giving away NetNewsWire, FeedDemon and NewsGator Go

NewsGator has announced that their formerly $30 news reading software, NetNewsWire, is now free. (Read their press release here.) This makes sense, as Google Reader and Facebook have made catching RSS feeds easier, and more important, free. While true news junkies may have been willing to shell out money for their software, the average consumer has been taking advantage of news feeds more and more in the last year or so. And if there is a free solution and a paid one, the average consumer - who didn't need the product in the first place and can take it or leave it - will opt for free. The question now is if NewsGator can catch up. Compared to Google and Facebook, they are virtually unknown. That NetNewsWire is actually a superior product (IMHO) is their one possible advantage, but they will need to play that card wisely. After all, there are a lot of people who will tell you that 1-2-3 was superior to Excel, betamax was superior to VHS, hemp fiber superior to vinyl, and death superior to another season of American Idol. Best doesn't always translate into a winner. If Google succeeds in making Gmail a social network in and of itself, things will only get harder. These products are nice, but just nice. No one actually needs any of this stuff. Making it simple for the layperson is what will translate into success. NewsGator appears to have made the first step in opening up their programs to everyone, as well as to developers to build upon. The next step is going to be finding a way to get those products to people easily. The Google/Facebook options are both web-based, which means the work is done for most people. NewsGator's products must be installed on your computer. While this used to be the standard of any computer product, the ease of web-based applications removes a step for the end user, making it more likely that they will use it. Not only does an installed application give a user the option to not bother installing it, but they can also uninstall it on a whim, never to retry it. At least with Google Reader, even if you ignore it, you can always see it working away. There's more work involved in removing it from your iGoogle page then there is to just leave it alone, and possibly find later on that you do use it. In short, there's another product war going on. Which shouldn't be surprising, since there's money to be made in RSS syndication. In the meantime, if you do use news feeds on a regular basis, I do suggest you give NewsGator online a try. Why not? In the words of John Blutarsky from Animal House, "it don't cost nothin'."

About the Author: Eric Reid

I am the Social Media Services Manager for Off Madison Ave. I've been with the company since 2006, when I was hired to do SEO, and link building in particular. When social networking sites started cropping up, at first I started using them to create backlinks - but they weren't the best for that, given all of the "nofollow" attributes. However, I did see the potential for all of the direct referral traffic they represent. Since then I've been actively pursuing both tactics for clients: Links that can help them for search, and social postings that get them involved in the conversation. It's about the coolest job you could ever get. ;)