Pluck, a Austin-based social media company that I have mentioned several times on Somewhat Frank, has decided to kill its popular consumer-facing RSS Feed Reader. This is an interesting development as Pluck built its business on its RSS Reader but has since moved in other social media directions. According to an update on the Pluck web site:
"All versions of Pluck's RSS readers for Internet Explorer, FireFox and Pluck's web edition will be discontinued on 1/5/2007. The RSS Readers have served our community of end users well for several years, but with Pluck's focus in other business areas, the venerable RSS readers are set to be retired from our product line."
About a year and a half ago Pluck was my favorite RSS Reader but I felt like the product did not evolve as other products kept improving. However, the shutdown could be attributed to a number of changes in the RSS space which include the launch of IE7 with integrated feed reading, Firefox live bookmarks and lack of a solid revenue model for a feed reader - RIP Pluck RSS Feed Reader.
