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."

Comments

Petition

[abrotman]

For what it's worth ...

https://www.change.org/petitions/google-keep-google-reader-running

Re:Petition

[rsborg]

So there you go folks, Google have decided RSS is dead.

From a monetary standpoint, they're probably correct. RSS is as dead as SMTP, in that 99% of people using RSS don't run their own aggregators or feel comfortable with the format, but still benefit from it (i.e., podcasts). In other words it is part of the basic infrastructure of the Internet at large.

Of course, what do you expect from an organization that tried to defeat RSS earlier by supporting ATOM instead (Reader was cool as it supported both, and so did many other

Let's look at all the things Google gains by killing Reader:
* Non-savvy users are pushed back to the content website, which are probably displaying Google's display ads ($)
* Savvy users who like "social" are pushed to G+
* The remainder are just using resources and not giving them anything (and the probably block ads too) - so let them pay for their own aggregator/reader.

Two of the three things above are about money and the other one is a dig against their competitor (Facebook). Long-gone are the days of "don't be evil", but it's questionable whether that premise was ever rally valid or workable. Hate the playa or the game, Google's all about the money now.

Still not using bloody Google+

[blarkon]

Refugees are already saying that http://theoldreader.com/ is the replacement.

Alternatives?

[jordan314]

I'm super unhappy about this, I use google reader every day and Google Currents is no alternative. Which alternatives do people like?

Re:Alternatives?

[Anonymous Coward]

They're getting rammed hard with traffic right now but try one of these:

http://www.newsblur.com/
http://theoldreader.com/

Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

A decline in usage? I'm pretty sure many people use it, and I personally use it quite a lot. It's a good alternative to client-based RSS readers, and I don't think Google should retire it.

Declining?

[countach]

When they say it is declining, I wonder if they mean the web site only, or if they include all the apps out there that use it as their storage mechanism. The major loss here is that google reader is the standard. I can use half a dozen different RSS readers and know they all synch with Google Reader, and I can swap between them. Oh, and I know if one day I only have web access, Google's own web interface is pretty nice too.

Don't do it Google! I realize that Reader probably doesn't benefit you much directly, but it's a super important part of "the Google experience".

What a shame

[sirwired]

I realize that Google Reader probably did not make enough money, and/or drive enough traffic, to justify its continued existence. But I spend more time on Google Reader than any other website, by a considerable margin, and I'll miss it.

I'd even pay, if they offered it as a subscription service for a nominal fee.

Is 2005 back?

[aurelian]

I have just moved back to Linux from OS X, RSS and Google Reader is on the way out, so it looks like I'll be reading mailing lists instead, and I'm posting on Slashdot again.

And with it goes...

[Guppy06]

... the only reason I have and log into a Google account.

Here we go again

[srichard25]

I had put a lot of time into Google Notebook. I was using it to maintain a very active log of technical documentation. I carefully choose tags to make it easy to find the information I needed quickly, and I spent a lot of time pruning the information to keep it clean. Then Google said they were no longer going to develop Notebook.

I started using Google Reader to catalog technical articles. Once again, putting a lot of time/thought into tagging and notes to make it as useful as possible. Now Google is dropping Reader.

If the product is not making enough money from data/ads, then at least give people the opportunity to pay for it. I would gladly pay for Notebook and/or Reader!

Should I put the time and effort into gmail? Is that the next Google product to just disappear?? After being burnt twice, I will be thinking carefully before putting a lot of effort into a free Google product.

Re:WTF Google

[93 Escort Wagon]

No, based on events surrounding their last couple "retirements", it's pretty obvious they're attempting to force people to start using Google+ by retiring most stuff that's external to that product. It doesn't really seem to be working, but it's hard to interpret the tea leaves in any other manner.

For such a huge company they sure are looking desperate...

Feedly

[Mitaphane]

Feedly seems to be the best alternative if you've become accustomed to using Google Reader. It synchronizes itself with Google Reader (or it will until July). It even has some the same keyboard shortcuts. Transitioning is seamless; it uses Google's OAuth to gain access to your Google account and pull in all your feeds & tags.

It looks like the app is a little slow right now as they are dealing with the surge in demand.

http://blog.feedly.com/2013/03/14/google-reader/

It will break a lot of RSS readers

[djh2400]

Immediately after seeing the original post from the Google Reader blog, I started looking for a solution. It seems that practically every RSS program or service out there actually uses Google Reader as a centralized syncing platform.

I read news through RSS feeds at different computers throughout the day and on different OSes. The ability for a service to synchronize between all the places I access the feeds is paramount in a replacement. Thus, all those services which use Google Reader for syncing purposes will break once Google shuts down Reader, so, sadly, they are not a viable option as things stand right now.

I do like some of the alternatives posted by other commenters; I'll check out some of them when I have the time. I also signed the petition in one of the first comments above — it may have no effect, but it's worth trying, I suppose.

Re:It will break a lot of RSS readers

[Bremic]

I found this funny. There are Reader Clients for both iOS and Android that are rated as top apps. This means there must have been huge numbers of downloads of those apps, and large numbers of people using them - all requiring Google Reader.

Yet Google Reader has few users... this just doesn't add up.

It strikes me this is purely a Google+ selling point, and one that I suspect isn't going to work.

Re:Google+ is sort of what killed it

[Trepidity]

It had a bunch of "social" features which were axed in favor of Google+ integration.

Don't rely on third parties

[Celarent Darii]

Seriously guys, don't rely on third parties. If something is important to you, make it yourself!

I thought all serious slashdotters used GNUS for RSS feeds. Works great and you can customize it.

Re:Where the fuck are the APIs?

[Baki]

Tiny Tiny RSS is an open source aggregator that you can host yourself and offers an API and has two android clients (don't know about iphone). I use it and think it is a worthy replacement for google reader.