Pluck, the 2 year old Texas-based social media company has announced that it’s planning to shut off its RSS reader product line to focus into other business areas. Launched back in 2004, the product was one of the first of its kind but as others followed, lost traction over the years.
The official announcement which can be seen here advices Pluck users to export their data before 1/5/2007, which is when they plan to shut off their servers and delete existing data. They also recommend a few other soon-to-be ex-competitors where Pluckers’ can now choose to call home.
Pluck’s RSS reader, which comes in an IE, Firefox, and a Web version, aims at the ’untapped’ typical consumer market rather than the hardcore early adopter. Months after its launch, others like Google Reader, NewsGator, Bloglines, Rojo, and a more complex version of My Yahoo! were born and acted quick to capture market share. What was left unchanged? The intended ‘typical consumer’ never really showed up, instead, it’s the early adopter market that grew.
In some ways, Pluck’s decision to shut off this product line kind of surprises me. Other than their BlogBurst product, it is really the only thing I’ve known them for. While most companies I know started in the niche market but are growing toward the consumers, Pluck is one that’s doing the exact opposite: this is their only product which doesn’t focus on site owners and bloggers. With the growing reach of Web 2.0, you’d think this is the last move they would make.
[tags]Pluck, RSS Readers, Dead[/tags]
