One could argue that Tumblr fills the 'social publishing platform' niche, and it seems reasonably popular. I think the wider issue is content discovery outside

One could argue that Tumblr fills the 'social publishing platform' niche, and it seems reasonably popular. I think the wider issue is content discovery outside social networks. I wonder whether there are still lingering issues for blogs after the death of Google Reader, or whether new services have been successful at filling that void.