Google is Killing Google Reader!

ZanthianZanthian Mitey Worrier Icrontian
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-second-spring-of-cleaning.html

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.




Some may not use google reader, but i use this 20x a day. This is fairly disruptive to my way of using the internet. Anyone have a good suggestion for a replace rss feed reader that i can keep synced between my home computer, work computer, and mobile devices? I also use the email and share functionality from google reader. Come to think of it i also use it as my read it later source with their star system. The more I think about it the more this stinks.
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Comments

  • ZanthianZanthian Mitey Worrier Icrontian
  • GnomeQueenGnomeQueen The Lulz Queen Mountain Dew Mouth Icrontian
    Yea I can't believe they're retiring such a well used and liked product!

    image
    Zanthianardichoke
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    I was just coming here to post about this and ask if anyone has suggestions for a new product. Like Zanthian, I use this product constantly throughout the day - though I don't use the e-mail or likes or stars or anything like that. I just use it to read stuff, not interact with stuff - and I'd like a web based application that works similarly.

    What does everyone else who uses RSS use to read them?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited March 2013
    Google Reader is my favorite GApp behind Google search and Gmail. I won't use the word "travesty," but this is a travesty. I have used this app every day for 6-7 years.
    RyanMM
  • AnnesAnnes Tripped Up by Libidos and Hubris Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    The current alternatives they're kicking around on Hacker News are NewsBlur (paid app), Feedly, Feed a Fever (self-hosted), and The Old Reader.
  • LincLinc Owner Detroit Icrontian
    My favorite Twitter comments thus far:

    Dave Winer: "Next time, please pay a fair price for the services you depend on."

    macdrifter: "Bigger revelation: Google built a service that you configure with all your interests and biases. They couldn’t make it profitable."

    Pinboard: "We need to focus. Keep the self-driving cars, magic glasses, laptop, handheld OS, and Brazilian social network. Ditch the feed reader."
    RyanMM
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    I tried to like Google Reader, but I was back to Sage on Firefox in a matter of days as my preferred RSS reader.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    Sage was the RSS reader that kept me away from RSS for years. I hated how it worked. I wish I'd found Google Reader first.
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited March 2013
    Well Mr Hallock, one of these RSS readers has a future, and one of them does not. /smith
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    Someone will build a clone, and I will be happy.
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    Bollocks.

    Google Reader was what made RSS feeds usable for me. Feedly is really pretty, but the lack of ability to sort oldest unread to newest unread makes it a nonstarter for me. The search for a new Reader begins...
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited March 2013
    ardichoke said:

    sort oldest unread to newest unread makes it a nonstarter for me.

    This is what turned me off from virtually every other reader I tried. It's a critical feature for me. Also, hiding feeds that have no new updates.
  • GnomeQueenGnomeQueen The Lulz Queen Mountain Dew Mouth Icrontian
    Do we think that if they charged for it, people would pay and they could keep the service open? Say, $5 a year?
  • LincLinc Owner Detroit Icrontian

    Do we think that if they charged for it, people would pay and they could keep the service open? Say, $5 a year?

    No, because that's irrelevant levels of money to Google.

  • SignalSignal Icrontian

    Do we think that if they charged for it, people would pay and they could keep the service open? Say, $5 a year?

    I really doubt it's a money issue with Google.

  • ZanthianZanthian Mitey Worrier Icrontian
    Someone started a Change.org petition: https://www.change.org/petitions/google-keep-google-reader-running

    Not that it will change google's mind.

  • GnomeQueenGnomeQueen The Lulz Queen Mountain Dew Mouth Icrontian
    I threw $5 out there randomly; I'm willing to listen to other number suggestions.

    I don't know that I think it's not a money issue; isn't that what everything eventually boils down to? If Google Reader was making them more money, they wouldn't retire it.
  • LincLinc Owner Detroit Icrontian

    I threw $5 out there randomly; I'm willing to listen to other number suggestions.

    I don't know that I think it's not a money issue; isn't that what everything eventually boils down to? If Google Reader was making them more money, they wouldn't retire it.

    Sure, but the number of users isn't enough to make a difference to Google at any reasonable cost.

    Let's say a million users agreed to pony up $25 a year (which I think is very generous both in number and price point). That's $25 million a year. That's great if that's your business. But, their revenue was $46 billion in 2012. So their bottom line could, rosy-number best-case scenario, go up less than 0.1%. Summary: They don't care.
  • LincLinc Owner Detroit Icrontian
    Signal said:

    I really doubt it's a money issue with Google.

    It's not, they want you to use Google+ as your feed to the Internet. RSS is an open standard they can't serve ads against (everyone would leave). Google Plus is a closed service they can make money on. Done deal.
  • GnomeQueenGnomeQueen The Lulz Queen Mountain Dew Mouth Icrontian
    If that's true, do we think that they'll come out with an RSS feed organizer as part of Google Plus? As is, they really aren't comparable products in anyway.
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    That's what I was thinking. The instant the pop-up came onto my screen telling me that I'll soon have to find a new way to RSS, my first thought was "Oh! They must be integrating RSS into G+ or another service."

    But I don't see any evidence anywhere that I'll be able to do what I was doing with Reader on any other Google service.
  • LincLinc Owner Detroit Icrontian
    Zanthian said:

    Someone started a Change.org petition

    It kinda makes me queasy to be petitioning a commercial entity to perpetuate a free service that was being underwritten by selling its users as its product audience elsewhere.

    I really feel like one day we're going to look back at the aughts as this crazy era where web companies were just giving shit away like crazy to try and figure out where they could get more money from. The answer, on all fronts, is selling their users. Google, Facebook, and Twitter have all figured it out, and the free ride is ending everywhere. Facebook started pay-to-share, Twitter closed its API, and Google turned off the free Apps tap and continues shuttering free services one at a time (unless they're social media where they can eventually pull a Facebook).

    If you don't know what the service you're using is selling, it's you. And if it can't sell you well enough, it's shutting down.
    PirateNinjaprimesuspectStraight_Man
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    edited March 2013
    It kinda strikes me as silly to petition a commercial entity to do anything at all. Ever.
    LincPirateNinjaprimesuspect
  • LincLinc Owner Detroit Icrontian
    edited March 2013
    For the record, I wasn't always this jaded. I used to love Google so hard. I knew their search was magic long before they owned the market. I knew their IPO would be the crazy success it would be. Everything they did was amazing. Then they started needing to actually work for their money, and being public made them need to keep growing. There's nothing wrong with it, but they're just another corporate entity now.

    Really think about what they did in the RSS market.

    They came in with guns blazing and cornered the whole market. They gave their product away for free, used their existing user base (Gmail) to spread it everywhere and financed it with money made in other areas (Adsense). It completely marginalized every other product in the category, and they never had an intention to actually monetize it.

    Sounds an awful lot like what Microsoft did to the browser market, doesn't it?

    And then one day Microsoft stopped caring about the market and stopped at IE6. And one day Google stopped caring about Reader and now it's dead.

    What happened next in browsers? A Renaissance. Firefox! Opera! Webkit! Web standards came roaring to life.

    What's happening right now to RSS? Suddenly every RSS feed product is courting people on Twitter, Facebook, and everywhere else. We're talking about RSS readers right here. When's the last time that happened?

    Google voluntarily ending its ill-gotten monopoly is possibly the best thing that could happen to RSS.
  • GnomeQueenGnomeQueen The Lulz Queen Mountain Dew Mouth Icrontian
    There's also plenty of products that go under/out etc, and no better product rises up to fill the hole. Will the other RSS feeds step up? Sure. Will they ever be as awesome as Google Reader? Maybe? Meh.
  • ZanthianZanthian Mitey Worrier Icrontian
    CB said:

    It kinda strikes me as silly to petition a commercial entity to do anything at all. Ever.

    I agree and didn't sign, but really just posted as commentary on news of the event.

    I really do hope that there is a product that can be a good replacement for Reader.
  • LincLinc Owner Detroit Icrontian
    There was briefly a White House petition as well, but it was removed in about 30 minutes. :rolleyes:
  • LincLinc Owner Detroit Icrontian
    edited March 2013

    There's also plenty of products that go under/out etc, and no better product rises up to fill the hole. Will the other RSS feeds step up? Sure. Will they ever be as awesome as Google Reader? Maybe? Meh.

    You realize that, following this line of reasoning, if you're still pining for Reader in a few years, you will automatically be Tim, right? :p
    TushonCanti
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    Zanthian said:

    CB said:

    It kinda strikes me as silly to petition a commercial entity to do anything at all. Ever.

    I agree and didn't sign, but really just posted as commentary on news of the event.

    I really do hope that there is a product that can be a good replacement for Reader.
    Same here. In fact, these days, most of my interaction with Google Reader was done via NewsRob. What I liked about GR was simply that it enabled me to keep my RSS feed status in sync across multiple devices.

    I really like the look of feedly, I also love that they're attempting to do a seamless transition from Google Reader to their service. If they would just make their app allow more control about how feeds are displayed (in my case, showing unread only and sorting oldest to newest) I would move to them immediately.

    Also, this whole thing makes me wonder what the guy behind NewsRob is going to do. He built a decent RSS reader, but it's main attraction was the tight integration with Google Reader. I hope he moves it to another service for syncing. That would probably be ideal in my case.
  • GnomeQueenGnomeQueen The Lulz Queen Mountain Dew Mouth Icrontian
    edited March 2013
    Lincoln said:

    There's also plenty of products that go under/out etc, and no better product rises up to fill the hole. Will the other RSS feeds step up? Sure. Will they ever be as awesome as Google Reader? Maybe? Meh.

    You realize that, following this line of reasoning, if you're still pining for Reader in a few years, you will automatically be Tim, right? :p
    Whoa there, that's not fair! >:<
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