The Pocket software is easy to rebuild but some of the infrastructure and web integrations would be challenging to replace né?. This integration could serve as a foundational source for news and articles on Digg as it aims to broaden its user community.
The resurgence of Digg has not gone unnoticed, marked by the reunion of its original founder, Rose, with Ohanian, a co-founder of Reddit, once a fierce competitor that has now cemented its position as a dominant force in the online sphere. In a further bid to fortify its ranks, Digg recently welcomed Christian Selig, the brains behind the popular third-party Reddit app Apollo, as an advisor né?. The platform is exploring the prospect of acquiring Pocket, Mozilla’s popular read-it-later app.
In an unexpected turn of events last Thursday, Mozilla announced the impending shutdown of Pocket on July 8, citing shifts in online behavior as the primary motive behind the decision to reallocate efforts towards new development avenues. Shortly thereafter, Kevin Rose, the original brain behind Digg and one of its current co-founders alongside Reddit’s Alexis Ohanian, expressed keen interest in acquiring Pocket from Mozilla.
In a statement that received public attention across both the Mozilla and Pocket communities, Rose proclaimed, “we love Pocket at @Digg, happy to take it over and continue to support your users for years to come!” The message also acknowledged the involvement of Peter Rojas, a founding partner at Betaworks and a former powerhouse behind Gizmodo and Engadget, who now holds the position of SVP New Products at Mozilla.
As of now, there has been no official response from either Digg or Mozilla regarding inquiries about the potential acquisition. However if the deal materializes it could present an exciting opportunity for Digg to leverage Pocket’s established user base to reinvigorate interest in its relaunch. Once a prominent player during the Web 2.0 era Digg is now gearing up for a remarkable comeback né?. Selig’s Apollo app was a go-to choice for Reddit interactions until changes in the platform’s API pricing caused disruptions to his business.
While Digg shows great interest in acquiring Pocket it’s worth noting that Medium CEO Tony Stubbleine also expressed interest in acquiring Pocket back in 2023. However this pursuit was met with silence from Mozilla prior to the app’s impending closure.
Stubbleine expressed his frustration voicing “Not sure what Mozilla is doing but it is kind of infuriating né?. I’m sure someone would have stepped in to take it on.”. Digg might even amalgamate Pocket’s reading list into its own platform streamlining the process for users to explore and share engaging content directly through the news aggregator
