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Google Reader shut down announced ten years ago today

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11–20 of 354 posts

Re: Google Reader shut down announced ten years ago today

#11
post #6

I still don't understand why people couldn't switch to a different RSS reader. The Google Reader narrative seems like it was just as helpful as the bank run we just had.

Google reader was also an archive of all the RSS feeds you had subscribed to, or someone had subscribed to before you. So you could get things that were no long let online

Re: Google Reader shut down announced ten years ago today

#12
post #6

I still don't understand why people couldn't switch to a different RSS reader. The Google Reader narrative seems like it was just as helpful as the bank run we just had.

I remember trying the alternatives back then (feedly, newsblur, etc) and they were just not as smooth, possibly because they were struggling to cope with the influx of Google Reader refugees.

Re: Google Reader shut down announced ten years ago today

#13
post #6

I still don't understand why people couldn't switch to a different RSS reader. The Google Reader narrative seems like it was just as helpful as the bank run we just had.

I switched to different readers since then, but I'm still disappointed because 1. GR was in many ways just better and simpler (before they starting shoving sharing down the users throats), and 2. kind of sad the whole RSS feed subscription thing remained niche, seems like after that most large social networks/blogs started dragging users into their proprietary feeds, and then a lot if that got crushed by ads and dumbass "suggested for you" content which by now got so annoying I don't even want to use most services anymore. We've gone a long way from simple RSS/readers and not in a good direction : (

Re: Google Reader shut down announced ten years ago today

#14
post #7

I literally stopped reading literature the same way after that. With GReader I used to consume the ToC of 15-30 journals without missing a single abstract. I just gave up on reading that way after that, no other tool came close.

Which part of Google Reader was the one that no other tools came close to?

There's almost as many good and different RSS reader clients as Todo list apps, so this somehow seems like seen through rose-tinted glasses.

Re: Google Reader shut down announced ten years ago today

#15
post #6

I still don't understand why people couldn't switch to a different RSS reader. The Google Reader narrative seems like it was just as helpful as the bank run we just had.

Many did, but:

1. The retirement of Google Reader sort of signaled the death knell for RSS. No, every RSS feed didn't shut down immediately. Yes, there are still zillions of RSS feeds live today in 2023. But it was a sign that any RSS feed you cared about wasn't likely to be around forever.

2. Many did switch, but Google Reader had some basic (but nice) social features. I think about 99% of my friends never made the switch to something else. So I miss seeing what my friends starred.

Re: Google Reader shut down announced ten years ago today

#16
This is probably the inflection point in history where I lost all trust I had in Google. I don't know how much they saved by shutting it down (probably nearly nothing) but I know that for me and people around me it was a such terrible signal that I never trusted again Google for anything serious/business. Well done guys

Re: Google Reader shut down announced ten years ago today

#19
While this was a pretty monumental moment in how most of us viewed Google, and was probably bad for things like RSS adoption (it's fallen a lot since), I can't but help think that Google moving out of this field opened it up for some actual improvements

I use inoreader, and it's got features Reader never had, and probably never would have grown. If Google was still king of the castle, it probably wouldn't exist today

Re: Google Reader shut down announced ten years ago today

#20
post #6

I still don't understand why people couldn't switch to a different RSS reader. The Google Reader narrative seems like it was just as helpful as the bank run we just had.

People could and many did.

However Reader was a useful, beloved, and rather… intimate product, it was one which closely held your interest and part of your daily workflow.

For its users, its closure sent a clear message: Google has stopped caring, it doesn’t matter how important something is to you, or to an ecosystem.

Personally, it’s the moment I stopped being comfortable using google products for anything essential.

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