What Happened to Instapaper?

I ask this question every time I open the app: What happened to Instapaper? After its sale both Marco and Betaworks seemed so enthusiastic about the popular read later service’s future. Since then two months have gone by without a peep from anyone — not even a point release.

But that’s not a bad thing. It’s no secret that after Google’s decision to shutter Google Reader, Digg’s entire staff put every effort in to creating a replacement from scratch, effectively putting a stop to work on every other project, including Instapaper. Now that Digg Reader is out though, work on those other projects will undoubtedly resume, and we will soon see a major new version of Instapaper — of this I am sure: especially after such a prolonged period of inactivity leading up to Marco’s sale of the service, Betaworks will want to come out swinging with Instapaper 5. Not another point release, but a full-on major update to the internet’s favorite read-later service.

It’s an exciting time for this product that such a large majority of the internet’s most influential personalities use. I can’t wait to see what Betaworks makes of this opportunity.