NewsGator used to have an online RSS reader service, but their market share started slipping away from competitors such as Netvibes, PageFlakes, and Google Reader.  Personally I never really used NewsGator, but I noticed Pulse2.com get a good amount of hits from their RSS reader about one or two years ago.  The company has decided to focus more on desktop applications and enterprise social tools.

On the NewsGator blog, they wrote that users are recommended to migrate to Google Reader by August 31, 2009.  Google employee Brian Shih wrote a welcoming blog post to users migrating from NewsGator to Google Reader yesterday.

As another alternative NewsGator’s desktop applications is one of the most used on the market.  Their RSS reader for the Windows operating system is called FeedDemon. And NewsGator’s desktop RSS reader for the Mac is called NetNewsWire.

Thus far NewsGator raised about $39 million in funding from Mobius Venture Capital and Masthead Venture Partners.

“Companies of all sizes are turning to SharePoint as the foundation for social computing and Enterprise 2.0.”
-Dave Keller, General Manager of Enterprise at NewsGator

From what I’ve observed, corporations that depend on Microsoft Outlook as their primary e-mail software also use Microsoft Sharepoint.  Sharepoint is a tool that is very wiki-like.  Users that have Sharepoint usually start forums that only certain teams of a corporation have access to. 

For example, let’s say that I’m a Human Resources representative and I recently hired some new employees.  I would use Sharepoint as a hub for the new hire documentation and give permission to the new employees to access the content.  Sharepoint is a place where users can upload documents and also is generally used for forums, especially within teams of major corporations.

Today Microsoft announced that they signed a partnership with Atlassian Software Systems Pty. Ltd., an Australian company that is known as a top wiki provider.  Microsoft also signed a deal with NewsGator Technologies, Inc. NewsGator is an RSS company that develops and markets RSS feeds for end users of all types.  Through the partnership, NewsGator would generate RSS feeds on the web, on Microsoft Outlook, and on mobile devices using Mac and Windows operating systems.

“Companies of all sizes are turning to SharePoint as the foundation for social computing and Enterprise 2.0,” said Dave Keller, general manager for Enterprise at NewsGator. “NewsGator Social Sites builds on this foundation and delivers the essential components for driving portal usage and widespread collaboration.”

For screen shots of the application, check out ReadWriteWeb.

Information Source:
[1] Microsoft press release: Microsoft Powers Up Web 2.0 With Innovative Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Partners