Waterloo’s Wellread battles Google Reader alternatives by making RSS social

When, in March, Google decided to shutter its popular Google Reader service, the move frustrated and surprised many users, and instantly opened the door for alternatives such as Feedly, The Old Reader and NewsBlur.

Now, a startup born at Waterloo’s Communitech incubator is throwing its hat in the RSS ring, looking to capture some of the Google Reader traffic by making RSS social.

Wellread, which was formed in late-2011 says it differs from its competition because it incorporates social content from your Linkedin or Twitter account to your RSS feed. The company says some users simply use the product as an RSS reader, but many more appreciate its networked aspect.

CEO Rob Darling says Wellread is a bit of a hybrid.

“We are like Google Reader plus Google News and Google Alerts for your personalized sources. We offer the simplicity of an RRS reader enhanced with smarts, collaboration and sharing. It’s a better way to get news, from traditional channels as well as your social and professional networks, all in one place – more efficiently and with more user control than Google, ” he says.

Wellread also markets a Google Chrome extension for Twitter that makes personalized Twitter trends resident on the twitter.com website.

Google reader was created in early 2005 by Google engineer Chris Wetherell through Google Labs. Late in 2011, Google removed some of the features of the service such as the built in sharing functionality, and replaced it with the Google+ +1 button.

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