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Google Reader Being Retired
Edgewood_Dirk writes "According to the official blog, Google Reader is being retired on July 1st, 2013. The main reasoning seems to be its decline in usage over the last few years. Users and developers will be able to retrieve their RSS data using Google Takeout."
Google is famous for just dropping products, if you are not prepared for your favorite thing to just 'disappear' or a forced migration don't rely on Google.
"Oh, you didn't use Buzz and you aren't using Google+?
Well, now we're closing something you actually use!
That will show you to belittle our products!"
Google Reader used to have some useful features which they actually removed in hopes of pushing people to Google+. Didn't really work, usage declined, now they're killing it.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Google is famous for just dropping products, if you are not prepared for your favorite thing to just 'disappear' or a forced migration don't rely on Google.
I'm still dreading this November when I have to find a replacement for iGoogle. That's honestly the only thing that takes me to Google every day,
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
Google pretty much demonstrates the iron-cast reason why you shouldn't move your apps to the cloud every time they have another round of "cleaning."
I just went and deleted my Google+ account in protest of this and I would suggest that others do also. You are given an opportunity to tell Google why you are leaving Google+ and it seems to me there is no better place to sound off on this incredibly stupid decision to kill Reader.
With everything being in the cloud, what if the cloud is gone someday. The google reader is just an example here.
If google reader is just a desktop app, we can happily conitnue to use it even it is abandoned.
But if it is in the cloud, we are screwed.
It's one thing to shut down a product that is didn't make it out of the gate (e.g., Buzz), but it's another to shut down a product that is considered to be the premier product in its space.
I've been using Google products for a long time, and have understood most of their shutdowns. I used to think that as long as the service wasn't "experimental", it'd stick around. But going forward, I have 0 trust, since obviously even having the #1 product isn't enough.
Signed.
I'm not interested in the social integration/people following me/me following people that things like google takeout supply, just let me read my feeds in piece!
Agreed. I need a replacement that syncs across multiple platforms. I don't need a magazine style layout. I learned to read. I don't need pictures. And I don't need some social community to validate my reading choices.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Oh, calm down. All this means is that you have to export your stuff, and import into a different, nearly identical service.
What do you want them to do, anyway? Swear a blood-oath that once they start up a service, they will continue with it forever?
If they don't think it makes sense to commit the resources to maintain it, then it's certainly not going to make sense to maintain a paid version - not everything is about revenue.
You act like this is some kind of galling defect in Google's collective moral fibre - some things don't stick, it happens.
sic transit gloria mundi
I've seen so many "Fuck you Google" said today I'm beginning to think Google has officially transitioned into being the new Microsoft.