Digg Reader Review & Update

I got my invitation to join Digg Reader. This is a review of the Digg Reader from my perspective of a first time user. This is definitely a beta version of software. It works. But, I think the reader is incomplete. That is sort of the point with beta software.

The Digg Reader Welcome page. Elegant...

The Digg Reader Welcome page. Elegant…

I originally went to the site and put in an email address which lets Digg know I wanted to participate in the beta. The next day I got an email. It had my unique link to Digg Reader. Yay! Excitedly I click and got a page elegant in a simplistic design style. Basically the only information was: Digg Reader – Click to import Google Reader. See the image above. I did that and got an error. After that it got confusing.

On a retry I got to a login to Google page that is apparently some type of Facebook or Facebook like sign in. They let me know what the app wants to do and I approve or deny. Deny and you’re done, otherwise supposedly the start an import process. I got dumped to the Digg home page with no explanation of what was happening or what to do next. Subsequent attempts to login to the reader landed me on the Digg home page.

I assumed it was going to take some time to handle the import. Trying the next day I got into the Digg Reader.

I take it the less than informative process and problems are a statement on Digg’s priority to support users of Google Read, which will cease operation in days. Things seem to have been rushed out.

An easy way into the reader once you have it, is the URL: https://digg.com/reader.

No other options for importing from other readers is available. I thought that would be a problem because I abandoned Google Reader months ago… seems. My list of sites has changed in that time, dropping and adding sites to follow. But, it seems Google has tracked or Feedly reported the changes I’ve been making in Feedly… Geez, Obama probably knows too. Anyway, that makes things easier.

Reader in Use. Showing Jo's articles unread... (Enlarge)

Reader in Use. Showing Jo’s articles unread… (Enlarge)

There are little things missing and odd things that do not work. The scroll bar on the sites list doesn’t work in my Chrome browser, but the mouse wheel moves it. There is no article count in the sites list. But, there is a setting in Settings to change that.

The big problem is the tracking on what I have read and haven’t read is absent. Everything is unread. I have noticed that is common across all readers. When you first use most any reader, you have to tell it what you have read in the past to catch it up.

The display setting is global across all sites. In Feedly I can change how each site displays. That is way handy. With some sites, like fashion sites, I want to see images to decide if I want to read more. Other sites I only want to see the headline. Feedly lets me do that. But, I have had some problems with Feedly forgetting those settings from time to time.

In Digg Reader, and most others, the sites list can be arranged by category. Those categories can be expanded or collapsed. Handy enough. Feedly allows the same thing, but with added features. When collapsed the Feedly categories list shows the number of unread articles. Digg has a setting that is supposed to do that too. But, it doesn’t seem to work.

4 thoughts on “Digg Reader Review & Update

  1. ” Geez, Obama probably knows too.” Obama (and the NSA) is small change, it is Facebook we have to worry about! http://honourmcmillan.wordpress.com/2013/06/28/second-life-as-idiotic-as-it-sounds-gave-me-an-illusion-of-privacy/

    • If you watched the Boston Bombing interviews on Outfront you would have noticed a former FBI Counter Terrorism agent say that ANY phone call in the US could be recovered. That means they had to be recorded. Watch: http://archive.org/details/CNNW_20130502_030000_Erin_Burnett_OutFront#start/540/end/570 and http://archive.org/details/CNNW_20130502_030000_Erin_Burnett_OutFront#start/570/end/600

      Recently Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, disclosed on Thursday [6/13] that during a secret briefing to members of Congress, he was told that the contents of a phone call could be accessed “simply based on an analyst deciding that.” See: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57589495-38/nsa-spying-flap-extends-to-contents-of-u.s-phone-calls/

      That is government violating the Constitution. That is not a small thing.

      • I totally agree. My point is that businesses and their advertiser cohorts are just as bad, although in a different way. Facebook, AdSense, Google Analytics, Mastercard, etc. have huge databases on all of us and too often it is ignored or seen as a good thing.
        We get very worked up when the excesses of government spying come to light and ignore the commercial databases.

        • The reason people get worked up is because with commercial actors we have recourse and when governments do it they are already breaking laws that restrain the government. Any recourse is nearly impossible. If a government agency is willing to break one law, why would anyone think they won’t extend their power by breaking more?

          Also, businesses are not recording our every phone call. Nor are they likely to use those against us. The IRS testimony under oath before Congress has shown that contributor lists were taken from conservative organizations and provided to their opponents, who then began harassing them. FBI and NSA agents are testifying that any American’s phone calls can be retrieved. The Constitution specifically forbids that without a court order for each individual or small group.

          You seem not to see the significant difference between commercial interests and government interests gathering information. That suggests you are not much of a history buff?

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