NewsGator Powers Personalized USA Today Web Site

Yesterday, USA Today unveiled a "public beta" of a personalized news service for the paper's online readers.  NewsGator Private Label is powering this innovative offering.  USA Today wrote to the NewsGator Online API and delivered a really smooth and compelling product to their audience.  What's unique about this application is that users don't explicitly know that they are using RSS feeds.  All they see is that they can quickly and easily personalize the news, sports, money, life, travel and tech sections with content from USA Today and popular external providers such as the New York Times, ESPN, Markwatch, Slate and The Onion.  More experienced users can add any feed they want by entering the URL, but as Kinsey Wilson, Executive Editor notes in the press release, "We have created a custom newsreader for the everyday news consumer who doesn’t want to think about technology."

We'll see if this becomes a trend for newspapers, magazines and other content providers. A lot of sites have taken the approach that people are familar with RSS and that branded readers should look and feel more like commercially-available RSS readers.  USA Today took the opposite approach and delivered something that doesn't resemble a typical reader.  There are pros and cons to each approach and what type of approach is used will often depend on the demographics of a particular site's readership.  However, given the positive buzz that this application has generated in the blogosphere, I suspect that you'll see a lot of sites choose this approach.

On another note, NetNewsWire 2.1 was officially released on Monday night.  Read more about the highlights in our press release or at Brent Simmons' blog.  You can also pick up the new product from our Web site at http://www.newsgator.com/NGOLProductCatalog.aspx.