So what’s this NuffnangX I’ve been hearing about?

I was one of the first batch of people to be given the privilege of checking out this neat little application (both web and mobile versions) called Nuffnang X, and if you’re a blog reader or writer, you should check it out too.

So what is NuffnangX?
Take Instagram and Google Reader, put them in a dark room with comfy bed and scented candles, you get NuffnangX 9 months later.

Nuffnang X on Mobile

It is both a mobile application on Android & iOS devices, and a web application that allows you to read blog posts & track comments in ways that was never before possible, at least not nearly as easily and efficiently.

Like Google Reader or many other RSS readers, you can search and subscribe to any blogs that interests you (not just those under Nuffnang’s umbrella). Whenever any of them has an update, it appears on your feed (or timeline if you will); and a photo is grabbed from the said blog post too (in this case, a bit Instragram-ish)

Further more, and this is the interesting bit, NuffnangX also has some wizardry applied in their program to extract a single “most interesting” line from the post.

Clicking on the entry will then expand it to show the original post as you would if you visit the individual site, with an addition – conversation.

NuffnangX on web

Conversations?
It is a commenting system on NuffnangX that notifies the blog owner (if he/she is on the platform too) whenever a comment is received, which makes comment tracking in replying very efficient. Similarly, whenever the blog owner reply your comment, you get notified on your devices and NuffnangX website too, a bit like facebook/twitter in this regard.

Blog discovery:
NuffnangX also allows you to see the number of subscribers a particular blog has on the platform, and who are those subscribers. A fun way to use this is to click on a user (especially a friend) and check out what are the blogs he/she subscribes to that might interest you.

There’s also an Editor’s Recommendation section that help expose users to sites we might otherwise never have come across.

So is it like… perfect?
The platform is not perfect, being very new, there are some kinks to work out but overall the application is pretty stable and useful. I’ve now completely migrated to it from Google Reader. There are some features I’d want to be in NuffnangX, such as ability to mark posts that we’ve read, collapse all posts to hide photos for compact viewing, and such, but I guess those could come in the future.

So check it out if you haven’t. It’s on Google Play for Android and iTunes for iOS devices and is a free application.

If you’re already on NuffnangX, follow this column by clicking here.