Ghost, a popular open-source newsletter platform, has taken a significant step towards expanding its reach by connecting to the fediverse, also known as the open social web. This integration enables publishers to share their content and engage with users across various federated platforms, including Mastodon, Pixelfed, and Threads.

The company had announced its plans to integrate with ActivityPub, the protocol that powers the fediverse, last year. Although the integration was expected to go live in 2023, Ghost has now launched its social web beta, allowing users with a Ghost Pro subscription to try out the new feature.

When Ghost Pro users connect their blog or newsletter to the fediverse, others across the open social web can follow their account's handle, which is a combination of "@index" and their domain name (e.g., @yoursite.com). Ghost has also announced that users will soon be able to customize the "@index" part of their handle.

With this integration, users on federated apps can follow Ghost publishers' posts, interact with them by liking, replying, or reposting, and even discover new content through Ghost's social web reader. The reader allows users to browse a "feed" of short-form content shared across the fediverse, including posts from services like Mastodon and Threads.

In addition to the social web reader, Ghost has also launched an "Inbox" feature, where users can keep up with long-form content, such as articles published on Ghost or WordPress, which integrated with the fediverse in 2023. The Inbox feature allows users to view new articles from followed publications, interact with them, and even customize their Profile page to offer a preview of their social web account.

Ghost's Reader also alerts users of interactions like follows, replies, likes, and reposts in its "Notifications" section. The company plans to more deeply integrate users' social web profiles with Ghost memberships in the future, but for now, they operate independently from one another. Other coming features include tools to block, report, and mute people or add images or media to notes and replies.

Despite the promising integration, there are some compatibility issues with the Ghost Reader, particularly with Meta's Threads. Ghost users can search for and find Threads users' profiles, but no interactions work because Threads blocks them. The issue is on Threads' side, and Ghost suggests that users mention Instagram head Adam Mosseri to fix it.

To try the Ghost social web beta, Pro subscribers can head to the Ghost Admin and enable the beta under Settings and then Labs. With this integration, Ghost is poised to expand its user base and offer a more comprehensive platform for publishers and readers alike. Today, Ghost is used by several notable publications, including Casey Newton's Platformer, 404 Media, David Sirota's The Lever, Tangle, Jason Calacanis's Inside, SFist, and others.

The implications of this integration are significant, as it enables a more open and decentralized approach to content sharing and engagement. By connecting to the fediverse, Ghost is providing its users with a more extensive reach and a broader audience, ultimately fostering a more dynamic and interactive online ecosystem.