The Social Web

Things have been quiet here recently, and that's largely because I've been really busy working on lots of cool new stuff for Pine.blog. While the last few months have been full of steady progress, there's still a ways to go before the next set of features are ready for the world. If everything goes according to plan, the next major release should allow premium users to start their own blog on the site.

So far, Pine.blog has been mostly focused on being a good feed reader, and while I think it is, there's so much more that can be done with feeds and blogs than just read them.

Feed Readers are the First Step

I've wanted Pine.blog to support custom blogs since the beginning, and that's largely because I think that by making it easier to both read and write on the open web, we can give people a viable alternative to more traditional social networks and offer them an escape from the problems those platforms have.

Using tools and technologies that have existed for years, the web itself can be a social network, but in order for people to embrace that idea there have to be easy-to-use tools that are new and powerful, but also familiar and approchable, and importantly, there also have to be people to talk to; the web has to feel like a social network.

Pushing Forward

One of the things I've come to strongly believe is that as developers (or as anyone who makes a thing) we can work to push the world toward we think it should be, and I think that the Web can and should be our shared social network.

This is why I'm so excited by what I see as the future for Pine.blog. If we want people to move off of the platforms we think are the cause of so many problems in our world, we need to give those people a place to go. Most people aren't going to start a blog and use a feed reader unless we, as the people with the skills to do so, make the Social Web better than Social Media.