What Was Nuzzel?
Nuzzel was a social news discovery platform designed to help people find important stories without having to manually search through hundreds of posts, websites and social media feeds.
At its core, Nuzzel answered a simple question: What are the people in a person’s network reading and sharing right now?
Instead of treating every article on the internet equally, the service looked at links being shared by a user’s social connections and used that activity to identify stories that were gaining attention.
The result was a personalised news feed based largely on what people in a user’s network were reading.
Nuzzel became particularly popular among journalists, media professionals, investors, marketers and people who wanted to stay informed without spending hours scrolling through social media.
The service was eventually acquired by LinkedIn in 2021. LinkedIn subsequently announced that Nuzzel would be discontinued, and the standalone service was shut down later that year.
Although Nuzzel no longer operates as an independent platform, the idea behind it remains relevant. Modern news discovery tools still use social signals, recommendations, personalisation and network activity to determine which stories deserve attention.
Why Was Nuzzel Created?
Nuzzel emerged at a time when social media was becoming one of the main ways people discovered news.
Twitter, in particular, had become a major source of breaking stories and professional information. The problem was that Twitter’s chronological feed could be overwhelming.
A person following several hundred accounts might see dozens or even hundreds of links every day.
Important stories could disappear within minutes.
Nuzzel approached the problem differently.
Rather than asking users to monitor every individual account, it looked for patterns across the network.
If several people connected to a user were sharing the same article, that article became more significant.
This created a kind of crowdsourced ranking system.
The service was therefore less about publishing news itself and more about identifying which news stories were receiving attention from people a user already trusted or followed.
How Did Nuzzel Work?
The basic concept was relatively straightforward.
A user connected social accounts, particularly Twitter and later Facebook, to Nuzzel.
The platform then examined links being shared by those connections.
If several people were sharing the same story, Nuzzel could identify that story as being particularly popular.
The service would then present those articles in a ranked feed.
For example, imagine a user followed 500 people on Twitter.
During the morning:
- 15 people shared an article about a major technology announcement.
- 9 people shared an article about a financial market development.
- 3 people shared an entertainment story.
- 1 person shared a personal blog post.
Instead of presenting those links as an endless stream, Nuzzel could highlight the stories being shared by the largest number of people.
That was the central idea.
The service essentially turned a social network into a personalised news-filtering system.
What Made Nuzzel Different From a Traditional News App?
Traditional news applications generally organise information according to editorial decisions, algorithms or topic categories.
Nuzzel added another layer: the user’s social network.
That meant two people could receive completely different news recommendations even if they lived in the same city.
A technology journalist following software engineers, venture capitalists and startup founders would see different stories from a sports fan following athletes, commentators and sports publications.
The feed was shaped by the network.
That made Nuzzel particularly useful for professional information.
Someone did not necessarily need to search for “AI news” or “stock market news.”
If the people in their network were already discussing those subjects, Nuzzel could surface the relevant stories automatically.
Nuzzel and Twitter
Twitter was central to Nuzzel’s original appeal.
At its peak, Twitter was one of the fastest ways to discover breaking news, industry commentary and links to articles.
But Twitter also produced enormous amounts of information.
A person could follow a journalist for political reporting, a developer for technical updates and an entrepreneur for business commentary. All of their posts would appear together.
Nuzzel effectively added another filter.
Instead of asking:
“What did everyone I follow post?”
It asked:
“What are the people I follow collectively paying attention to?”
That distinction made the platform useful for people who wanted signal rather than volume.
Nuzzel’s Social News Ranking
The concept behind Nuzzel can be described as social news ranking.
The platform did not simply count how many times a story had been shared across the entire internet.
It focused on activity within a user’s network.
That made the recommendation more personal.
A story being shared 50 times by random accounts might be less useful to a particular user than a story shared by 10 people they knew or followed professionally.
This was one of Nuzzel’s strongest ideas.
The system effectively used social relationships as a relevance signal.
Nuzzel for Journalists
Journalists were among the groups that found Nuzzel particularly useful.
News professionals often need to monitor large numbers of sources.
Following individual journalists, politicians, researchers, companies and experts on social media can create an enormous amount of information.
Nuzzel could help identify the stories gaining traction among those sources.
For a journalist covering technology, for example, a sudden spike in sharing around a particular company announcement could signal that something important was happening.
The journalist could then investigate the story independently.
Nuzzel was not necessarily the final source of information. It was more like an early warning system.
Nuzzel for Marketers
Marketing professionals also used Nuzzel to monitor industry conversations.
Suppose a marketer followed hundreds of people in the digital advertising industry.
Instead of checking every account manually, Nuzzel could highlight articles that were being shared repeatedly.
This made it easier to identify:
- Emerging trends
- Industry news
- Popular research
- Competitor developments
- Viral articles
- Influential opinions
- Frequently discussed topics
For content marketers, this could also help with brainstorming.
If a particular subject suddenly appeared repeatedly in a professional network, it could indicate an emerging topic worth researching.
Nuzzel for Investors and Business Professionals
The same principle worked for finance and business.
An investor could follow analysts, economists, executives and financial journalists.
Nuzzel could then reveal which stories were attracting attention across that network.
This did not replace financial research or professional analysis, but it could make information discovery faster.
The platform’s value was therefore partly about time savings.
Instead of reading everything, users could start with the stories that their network was already discussing.
The Nuzzel Newsletter
One of Nuzzel’s most distinctive features was its newsletter functionality.
Users could create personalised newsletters based on the articles being shared by their networks.
This was particularly useful for professionals who wanted a daily summary without having to open the app repeatedly.
A Nuzzel newsletter could provide a curated selection of stories that were receiving attention within a user’s social network.
That concept was especially appealing in an era when email newsletters were becoming increasingly popular.
The newsletter effectively transformed a constantly changing social feed into a digest.
Nuzzel’s Daily News Experience
The typical Nuzzel experience was built around reducing information overload.
Instead of opening Twitter and scrolling indefinitely, a user could open Nuzzel and immediately see a ranked selection of articles.
The platform could show stories based on the number of connections sharing them.
This created a hierarchy.
A story shared by many people would appear more prominently than one shared by a single account.
That simple ranking mechanism made Nuzzel feel different from a conventional timeline.
It was designed around discovery rather than consumption of every post.
Who Founded Nuzzel?
Nuzzel was founded by Jonathan Abrams, an entrepreneur known for founding Friendster, one of the early major social networking services.
Abrams launched Nuzzel with a focus on helping people discover relevant information through their social connections.
The idea reflected an important change in internet behaviour.
As social networks became increasingly important sources of information, the problem was no longer finding content.
There was simply too much of it.
The challenge became filtering.
Nuzzel was designed around that filtering problem.
Nuzzel’s Growth
Nuzzel gained a loyal audience without becoming a mainstream consumer service on the scale of Facebook or Twitter.
Its strongest users were often people who valued information density.
Journalists, technology professionals, investors and media workers were natural users because their work required constant monitoring of information.
The service also benefited from the growth of Twitter as a news platform.
As Twitter became more important for breaking news and professional communication, tools that made Twitter easier to manage became more valuable.
Nuzzel was one of those tools.
Why Did LinkedIn Acquire Nuzzel?
In May 2021, LinkedIn acquired Scroll, a subscription service that bundled news websites and helped readers access content without conventional advertising.
As part of that acquisition, LinkedIn also acquired Nuzzel.
The deal was part of LinkedIn’s broader effort to improve the professional news experience on its platform.
At the time, LinkedIn said that Nuzzel’s technology and expertise would help it develop new ways for professionals to stay informed.
This made sense strategically.
LinkedIn already had a large professional social network.
Nuzzel had developed technology for identifying important news within social networks.
Combining the two could potentially produce a powerful professional news-discovery product.
What Happened to Nuzzel?
Unfortunately for existing users, Nuzzel did not remain available as an independent service for long after the acquisition.
LinkedIn announced in May 2021 that it would discontinue Nuzzel on June 18, 2021.
That meant the standalone Nuzzel website and app would no longer operate.
For long-time users, this was disappointing because the service had developed a reputation for being simple, focused and useful.
The shutdown was part of LinkedIn’s decision to integrate some of the technology and expertise acquired through Scroll and Nuzzel into its own products.
As a result, searching for Nuzzel today generally leads to old articles, archived references and discussions about the service rather than an active Nuzzel platform.
Why Did LinkedIn Shut Down Nuzzel?
The answer is largely strategic.
Acquisitions do not always mean the acquired product will continue under its original name.
Companies often purchase technology, teams, intellectual property or expertise and then integrate those elements into their own products.
That appears to have been the broader direction with Nuzzel.
LinkedIn was interested in improving professional news discovery rather than necessarily maintaining another independent social-news application.
From a product perspective, this allowed LinkedIn to incorporate relevant ideas into its own ecosystem.
For Nuzzel users, however, the result was the loss of a standalone tool.
Was Nuzzel Replaced by LinkedIn?
Not exactly.
LinkedIn has its own news, feed, trending topics and professional content discovery features, but there is no direct modern version of the standalone Nuzzel experience operating under the same name.
The difference is important.
Nuzzel was specifically designed around the articles shared by a user’s social network.
LinkedIn’s feed is much broader.
It includes posts, articles, company updates, job-related content, videos and other professional material.
The platform therefore absorbed some of the underlying ideas without recreating the original product exactly.
What Made Nuzzel So Popular With Professionals?
There was a certain simplicity to the service.
Modern social platforms can be distracting.
Nuzzel was more focused.
Users opened it because they wanted to know what was important.
The interface was designed around stories rather than endless social commentary.
That made it particularly attractive to people who needed information for work.
A journalist could quickly identify stories gaining traction.
A marketer could spot industry trends.
A technology professional could see what peers were discussing.
An investor could monitor financial news.
The service did not need to become a giant social network to be useful.
Its value came from filtering.
Nuzzel and Information Overload
The problem Nuzzel tried to solve has become even more relevant.
The amount of content published online has increased dramatically.
Every day brings:
- News articles
- Blog posts
- Social media updates
- Podcasts
- Videos
- Research papers
- Company announcements
- Newsletters
- Press releases
The challenge is no longer access.
It is attention.
Nuzzel’s basic philosophy was that social networks could help determine which pieces of information deserved attention.
That idea remains visible in modern recommendation systems.
Is Nuzzel Still Available?
No. The original Nuzzel service was discontinued in 2021 following LinkedIn’s acquisition.
There is no current official Nuzzel app providing the original social-news experience.
People searching for “Nuzzel” today may encounter archived pages, old reviews or references to the service’s history.
This can sometimes create confusion because the name still appears in older articles and social media discussions.
Are There Nuzzel Alternatives?
Although Nuzzel itself is gone, several types of tools can provide parts of the same experience.
The best alternative depends on what a person liked about Nuzzel.
Someone interested in personalised news might prefer a modern news aggregation application.
Someone interested in social signals might use social media lists and monitoring tools.
Someone looking for a professional newsletter could subscribe to curated industry newsletters.
RSS readers are another option.
RSS does not reproduce Nuzzel’s social-ranking system, but it gives users control over the sources they follow and can reduce dependence on algorithmic feeds.
Nuzzel vs. RSS Readers
The biggest difference is where the filtering comes from.
An RSS reader generally follows specific websites chosen by the user.
Nuzzel followed people and networks, then used their sharing behaviour to identify important stories.
RSS therefore provides source-based discovery.
Nuzzel provided network-based discovery.
Both approaches have advantages.
RSS offers more control and predictability.
Nuzzel offered serendipity.
A person could discover an article from a source they had never heard of simply because several trusted people were sharing it.
Nuzzel vs. Social Media
Nuzzel also solved a problem created by social media itself.
On Twitter, seeing a story depended heavily on timing.
If an account posted an important link while the user was offline, the story could disappear beneath hundreds of newer posts.
Nuzzel reduced that problem by looking at sharing activity over a period of time.
The user did not necessarily have to be online at the exact moment the story was posted.
That made the platform particularly useful for busy professionals.
What Happened to Nuzzel’s Data?
The exact handling of historical user data depended on LinkedIn’s shutdown process and the terms provided to users at the time.
When a service closes, users should generally assume that access to old feeds, saved preferences and historical data may not continue indefinitely.
Nuzzel users who needed information from their old account would have needed to follow LinkedIn’s instructions around the shutdown.
Because the service has been discontinued for several years, users should not expect the original account experience to be recoverable today.
The Legacy of Nuzzel
Nuzzel may seem like a small footnote in the history of social media, but its basic idea was influential.
The platform recognised that social networks contain a valuable signal: people reveal what they think is important by sharing it.
That signal can be used to rank information.
Modern recommendation systems use far more complicated algorithms and a much wider range of signals, but the underlying principle remains familiar.
What are people engaging with?
What are they sharing?
What topics are becoming popular?
What content is gaining momentum?
Nuzzel focused on those questions before algorithmic recommendation became such a dominant part of everyday internet use.
Frequently Asked Questions About Nuzzel
What was Nuzzel?
Nuzzel was a social news discovery and aggregation service that showed users the articles being shared by people in their social networks.
Is Nuzzel still available?
No. The original Nuzzel service was discontinued in 2021 after LinkedIn acquired it.
Who founded Nuzzel?
Nuzzel was founded by Jonathan Abrams, who is also known for founding the early social networking platform Friendster.
Did LinkedIn buy Nuzzel?
Yes. LinkedIn acquired Nuzzel as part of its acquisition of Scroll in 2021.
Why did Nuzzel shut down?
LinkedIn chose to discontinue the standalone Nuzzel product and use relevant technology and expertise within its broader professional platform strategy.
What did Nuzzel do?
Nuzzel monitored articles shared by a user’s social connections and ranked stories according to how much attention they were receiving within that network.
Was Nuzzel free?
The original Nuzzel service was available as a free social news discovery product. It also offered newsletter functionality.
What was the Nuzzel newsletter?
The Nuzzel newsletter was a personalised email digest featuring stories that were receiving attention from a user’s social network.
Was Nuzzel connected to Twitter?
Yes. Twitter was one of the most important sources for Nuzzel’s original social-news discovery system.
What is the best Nuzzel alternative?
There is no exact one-to-one replacement. Modern news aggregators, RSS readers, curated newsletters and social-media monitoring tools can reproduce different parts of the Nuzzel experience.
Final Thoughts
Nuzzel was built around a simple idea that turned out to be remarkably useful: the people in a social network can act as a filter for the enormous amount of information available online.
Rather than forcing users to read every tweet or search through countless websites, Nuzzel identified stories that were being shared repeatedly by people in their network.
That made it especially useful for journalists, marketers, investors and other professionals who needed to stay informed without constantly monitoring social media.
Its acquisition by LinkedIn in 2021 marked the end of the standalone platform. The service was discontinued, but the problem it was designed to solve has not disappeared.
If anything, information overload has become more significant.
There are now more articles, videos, newsletters, podcasts and social posts competing for attention than ever before. Modern platforms use increasingly sophisticated recommendation systems to solve that problem, but Nuzzel’s approach remains easy to understand.
Instead of asking an algorithm to decide what the entire internet should show, Nuzzel looked at something much more personal: what the people in a user’s own network were already reading and sharing.
That was its strength.
And although the Nuzzel name has disappeared from the modern internet, its approach remains an interesting chapter in the evolution of social news discovery.