Just hours after Google made the unsurprisingly unpopular decision to kill off Google Reader on July 1st, Digg announced their plans to build their own RSS reader – one that will serve as a replacement both in functionality and in spirit. Although Digg said that they were “confident [they] can cook up a worthy successor,” it appears that they have combed through the user feedback and constructed an outline of the product they hope to build, based on what former Google Reader users really want.

And there was a lot of feedback. According to Digg, their blog post announcing the Google Reader replacement received over 800 comments – more than when Digg announced the big Digg redesign back in July.

Here’s what Digg says were the four overarching trends they found in the user feedback, meaning these are the things that former Google Reader users want to see in a Digg Reader:

1. Keep it simple, stupid
2. Make it fast (like, really fast)
3. Synchronize across devices
4. Make it easy to import from existing Google Reader accounts

As we know, simplicity is one of the things about Google Reader that users seem to be the most fond of.

“Google did a lot of things right with its Reader, but based on what we’re hearing from users, there is room for meaningful improvement. We want to build a product that’s clean and flexible, that bends easily and intuitively to the needs of different users,” says Digg.

And they are also planning on building a reader that better incorporates content from Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, reddit, LinkedIn and other, more social places.

Digg says that they have been planning on building their own Reader for some time, but were forced to expedite their plans after Google dropped the hammer on Reader.

“We’re confident we can ship a product that meets the principles above, but if a feature is missing on Day 1 that you were really looking forward to, we ask that you 1) tell us and 2) be patient.”