We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites. While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader. Users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with Google Takeout over the course of the next four months.
One of Google’s most useful products. Gone.
Wow, what replaces it?
well that sucks…
Wither Flipboard?
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Crap. I like not launching an app for RSS, and a reader that inherently syncs OS X to iOS. I get the sense that RSS is dying, in general, and that’s too bad.
Meanwhile, Google Orkut lives on.
Wait…it’s not April Food’s Day. Say it ain’t so.
So bummed. =(
Assholes. Now I have to look around for another web-based RSS manager that I can sync to dedicated RSS apps on my iPhone and iPad.
Any suggestions?
I hope someone was paying attention to Brent Simmons and has a sync I can pay for.
So now all the RSS readers that rely on it for syncing are screwed. Nice.
Cue the usual douchebags who think RSS is dead and we should just use Twitter. Yeah, that’s fine if you’re an ADD blogger who spends their entire day browsing the web and you love seeing a dozen retweets of the same news story spam your timeline.
With virtually every RSS reader for the desktop and mobile relying on Google Reader for syncing, I’m guessing Google is about to face a shit storm of negative commentary.
I blame Apple.
Shit.
Great … the one thing Google makes that I use a ton and it gets scrapped. And such a useful product too…
Well this sucks. My second most used Google product other than Gmail. Gone.
Crap! I love Google Reader! How could they get rid of it?!? I use it every day! Mind you, I use Reeder to access it, so you can’t even tell you’re using Google! No ads! …. no revenue for Google…. I’m just leaching off their servers for my own convenience….
Oh. Yeah.
This sucks.
I’m upset about this, but it is quite interesting that a bunch of people who claim to prefer other services compared to Google because they are taking away their privacy, get angry about a Google product getting taken away.
Well, I assume we have to wait for what solutions the different RSS-Readers will support… None of the big ones seems to support anything else than Google.
I had a look at http://www.newsblur.com and it looks quite promising and very reasonably priced ($12/yr). Just, without apps like Reeder or NewsRack supporting it… I am hesitant.
Good. I’m finally rid of Google. It was the last service of theirs I used.
There are better alternatives though, especially for iOS. Flipboard and Zite to name a few.
That’s the one I’m considering. I’ll give it a whirl this week.
People still seem to think Google is a charity. They aren’t. If a service doesn’t sell ads they have to reason to keep it up.
Lifehacker.com did a great round up and will be doing a ‘hive five’ later
if you are in the Mac/iOS ecosystem, try Reeder… they sent out a tweet saying their users won’t be effected by the shut down. I’m not sure how, but they are easily my favourite feed reader/manager.
they are upset because an eco-system was built around it and it’s really being shut down because it hits their ad revenue stream. Look around the net today and tell me how many people are upset it’s leaving, or ones that are saying they rely on it daily. I’m curious if it was their site or the service that saw a decline in usage.
Are you sure they don’t rely on Google Reader as a back-end?
Apparently they are just cutting out anything that diminishes their advertising value. They just started eliminating ad-blockers from the Android marketplace… same problem, it is hurting them so they must control it.
Not good, I was forced to use Google Reader some years ago… I did not like the move at all… because they indeed “do evil”