Think Digg looks good? Check out Newspond. It’s in another league, folks.
No, it definitely does not have millions upon millions of users to give it strength and vigor. Newspond is a very young thing, officially launching today. But boy is she pretty. And a nice face may just give her a swift push to superstardom.
Okay, maybe not superstardom right yet. Definitely stardom, though. Give it a few months. With the right mix of blogospheric press and grassroots publicity, this thing could be swimming among the giants of news aggregation in no time. Seriously. I mean that.
Because…well…look at it. Need I point out the obvious? The place is gorgeous. Top to bottom. Yes, yes, it’s so thoroughly Mac-like, you could very easily question whether this was created somewhere deep inside the elegant craft house that is Infinite Loop, Cupertino. And Apple’s fetish with curves and gloss may not appeal to all. But in Newspond’s case, a fetch physique may help it greatly with its PR efforts.
Furthermore, Newspond operates with the kind of precision that would typically only be found when dealing with desktop-quality applications. Looks are looks, after all. The question is, does it work well? Answer: yep. Whether you’re managing the front page menu or reading comments, Newspond works in a way that - and I have no hesitation in saying this whatsoever - “just works.” Just works really, really well.
The site literally wows you with its behaviors and the efficiency with which it handles information. The screenshots here simply do not do it justice. Pay the site a visit. Spend a minute looking around. Two minutes, if need be. You’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.
The way in which like-minded stories and sources are grouped together in comprehensive lists is hugely convenient, too. Everything is superbly organised. And the way in which menus and submenus function and correlate with one another is nothing short of impressive. I’ll say it once more. Newspond is, in short, top-notch. Through and through.
As far as content is concerned, Newspond is, as I determined earlier, not the most abundant treasure trove of links yet. Digg, Reddit, etc., will give you way more in terms of the sheer volume of activity. But Newspond has its own unique spin on aggregation methodology that it truly manages hold its own rather well. And to be honest, for a first-day launch (granted, the service has been many months in the making; its creators have explained that the comment system alone required half a year’s attention) the thing is off to a phenomenal start. Only time will tell whether it can join the industry best in member numbers, but if any freshman has a shot, Newspond is it.
Message to Kevin Rose, Jay Adelson and the rest at Digg: Watch out. Newspond has got you trumped as far as appearances are concerned, and may soon be sitting in your rear view if happens to be touched by the iPod effect. I honestly never imagined that I’d be wooed by any other news aggregator since Digg came along, but now I don’t know what to think, except, wow.
There have been extensive grumblings up and down West Coast USA as of late, concerning Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo and the suspected culture clash that would result from a merger of the two corporations. Yahoo employees in particular fear the loss of an entrepreneurial atmosphere in Sunnyvale. Tech pundit and blogger Robert Scoble, speaking on a recent episode of the TWiT pocast, has the sense that a combination of the two forces would be messy and would be a job for their respective management teams to sort out for at least a year following the final handshake by their CEOs, Jerry Yang and Steve Ballmer.
I too can attest to forecasting a long, and sometimes painful transition period for Microsoft and Yahoo if the deal were to be completed. The people at Yahoo operate in a different fashion than those at Microsoft, for sure. There most definitely will be noticeable discontent and mutinous activity happening in both California and Washington states if things do proceed.
Yet, I also have to give Microsoft at least some benefit of the doubt here. Because believe it or not, Microsoft, despite its proclivity for playing a grumpy, graying (and let’s not forget domineering) technology giant, has a history of knowing when to take a mostly-hands-off, non-overbearing role in relation to its businesses, whether they be purely in-house developments or acquisitions. A number of the company’s research efforts, for example, are given a substantial amount of slack by the execs in Redmond. Yes, it’s true, Gates and Ballmer have had a history of granting a rather commendable level of autonomy to various parts of the corporate structure.
Therefore, I can’t imagine that it wouldn’t be too much of a leap to think Microsoft would play a reserved role as the new parent of a well-established $44-billion-plus Web giant. (more…)