This is a bittersweet topic for me as when I first heard Google’s plans for one of it’s many products, I was devastated. For many years, I found myself turning to Google Reader as a place for the best online daily news.
After finding out the news that Google Reader was closing down and seeing it trend on Twitter worldwide and in the UK, I knew it was time to let go and do my research. I used the LEAD strategy to find the next best thing.
Listen
For the listen part of the process, I used the tools available online to find something which people were using as their replacement for Google Reader.
Experiment
After reading what other people were using, I decided to experiment with some of the online tools that offer the same experience as Google Reader. This enabled me to understand the market and what online users really wanted to get out of an online daily news site.
Apply
This is where I took the websites I used as part of the experiment stage and put them into action. I posted news from three different sites to see which picked up the most traction (click through’s from followers on my social networks).
Develop
After finding the site that worked best, I included it as part of my online strategy. I would visit the site on a daily basis and pick some of the best articles, save them and share them with my audience.
After going through this process I found what The Next Web believed was the ultimate bookmarking tool and I have to agree with them. Welcome the new kid on the block; Dragdis.
Not only is the Dragdis site innovative and interactive, it has found its need in the market and perfected it’s online strategy. The team behind Dragdis love discovering things online, without 90% of all things interesting ending up in the black hole of bookmarked folders. The CEO Domas Sabockis spoke to The Next Web about why their product is more remarkable than those they compete with;
“Pocket is great, one click. But it does not help you organize. You then have to go back and organize. With Dragdis you are organizing and bookmarking at the same time. You put it in a particular folder. You can take your computer and throw it through the window and all the data will remain on dragdis.com”.
Dragdis solves bookmarking problems by allowing you to drag and drop links, images and videos and even text so that it appears on the right side of your browser the moment you start dragging it. Dragdis saves all meta-data once you drag items into a folder you created through Dragdis.
This business has taken something universal and made it remarkable. This is a perfect example of how people and technology is making our world a place where we are more efficient, giving us the time to focus on the art of real business and success.
Are you going to use Dragdis?
Thanks Warren, great article and hurrah for your discoovery! Dragdis loos very sexy indeed
Thanks Jessica and it looks like you have been keeping busy with Social Media.
I’d love to here more about what you are doing
Warren, thanks for the heads up about Dragdis. Though I found myself using Google Reader less and less, I do need to re-establish a bookmarking protocol for my feeds. Perhaps it was the Google Reader organizational issue that you reference that was the Achilles Heel for me, so a tool that can do both at the same time will be helpful. I’ll certainly give it a try.
My pleasure Paul, another tool I’ve been playing with is http://www.feedly.com/ it has a nice mobile app as well
Hi Warren, Great article, thanks! I signed up for Dragdis straight away and love the way it looks and works.
My only note of caution (to myself!) is to be wary of hoarding, I’ve found the ‘Reading List’ button in safari both a blessing and a curse… really useful to bookmark something I want read in depth or refer to later. However the temptation is to do this too often (where a quick – instant – read of an article may ultimately have been more efficient) resulting in a long reading list that I never have time to catch up on!
The huge advantage Dragdis has is the organisation functionality so hopefully this will help me streamline!… I’ll try to be disciplined!
Thank you and since writing this article, I have come across http://www.feedly.com/ which is also a great tool and easy to use, with a great smartphone app