MG Siegler:
I can’t help but get the feeling that the ramifications of Google killing off Reader are going to be far more wide-reaching than they may appear at first glance.
RSS is important to many sites and people in a variety of ways. MG looks at it from TechCrunch’s point of view and from his own site.
There seem to be more RSS-related service announcements today than even back when RSS was the hottest topic around.
The problem will not be to find a replacement, but to find one that will last, and is widely supported by application developers.
Quite happy with Feedly for the time being (the website, the apps are severely lacking), but I have yet to hear how they will handle accounts once Reader shuts down. I definitely want to kill my last Google account once this happens. If Feedly still forces me to authorize using a Google account then, they are out.
IT’s
This is broader than Google Reader. I’ve actively begun my migration away from Google, based on this demonstration of infidelity. I could put up with Google’s hostility towards its users (have you ever tried getting support for a Google product? Good luck! Everything’s permanently in Beta!)
Techies are what drive the masses toward new products. If I encourage my family/friends to use alternatives, eventually they probably will. Google Keep is a perfect example. 6 months ago, I would have been all over it. Today, no thanks. I’ll stick with Evernote.