Sarah is the TechCrunch’s veteran transportation reporter, having joined the blog in August of 2011. She confirms that Digg, the classic Web 2.0-era link aggregator originally founded by Kevin Rose and Alexis Ohanian, is in talks to buy Mozilla’s read-it-later app Pocket. Mozilla just made headlines with their surprise announcement that Pocket would be shutting down by July 8. This decision follows a change of web usage patterns and the desire to approach future development work in new and innovative ways.
The timing of such acquisition interest would be with Mozilla doubling down in the digital content management field. In a post on X, Rose celebrated the success of Pocket at Digg. She concluded, “We’re thrilled to be taking it over, and look forward to serving your users for decades to come!” As their new acquirer, Digg is committed to growing Pocket’s current user base. Concurrently, it seeks to do justice to its history as a content curator.
Sarah, who previously spent over three years at ReadWriteWeb before joining TechCrunch, has covered various tech developments, including significant moves in the digital landscape. Her I.T. professional experience ranges across sectors, including banking, retail and software. She draws from this deep experience as an implementer to bring a keen eye for detail on what transitions in technology mean.
In other news, the Apollo app was developed by developer Christian Selig. Over time, it evolved into one of the most popular and entertaining ways for users to interact with Reddit. Recently, Reddit pulled the rug out from under Apollo by drastically increasing its API costs and limiting access. Those increased costs may well have rendered Selig’s app uneconomic. This ongoing battle illustrates the pitfalls of poorly thought-out API pricing strategies and how they can dangerously impact third-party applications.
The context of these changes is the rapidly changing landscape of digital platforms and their business models. As organizations like Mozilla pivot away from certain applications like Pocket, opportunities arise for other players in the market to step in and provide continuity for users.
Digg is apparently very keen to buy Pocket. This change shows the extent to which tech titans are recalibrating their approaches in response to a dramatic change in user behavior. Rose and Ohanian are continuing to take Digg in this very positive direction for their new community. Assuming the acquisition still goes through, there’s a new wave of optimism for Pocket’s revival.