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Google Reader shut down announced ten years ago today

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Re: Google Reader shut down announced ten years ago today

#41

Post by thr717272 »

js4ever wrote: post #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

Ironically, for me it was probably when they shut down Google+ that I finally changed my views on Google.

For me Google+ was a lot like HN:

Peaceful, quiet and beautiful and lots Open Source content and smart people.

I still look once or twice a year but it seems everyone who are into building social media wants to copy not only the very limited functionality of Twitter, down to its dumb limitations, but also its UX and aestheti.

The exceptions I am aware of are Hubzilla (which lools seriously interesting but just confuses me and has no obvious way to enter - and yes, I can create my own instance but I cannot find anyone else), Diaspora (which I think copies Facebook and which is also confusing) and MeWe (which superficially look like Google+ but insist on repeating Googles mistake WRT real name policy).

Re: Google Reader shut down announced ten years ago today

#42

Post by nirui »

> While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader.

Back when Google was an underdog company in the market, they were desperately capturing the market share, and their strategy was basically throwing a lot of things at the wall and see what sticks (in a calculated way). I'd say Google Reader was one if the lucky coincidence they hit.

Sadly, after Google stabilized at it's market position, they no longer need these loss leader products, so they just removed it. A completely normal business decision, if you give it a look today.

I often use this as a reminder when I found myself developed a fan-altitude towards a company, so I can convert my altitude to "Nice product, I hope it make money" then proceed to use their product with an understanding that maybe one day I'll jump to another ship.

Re: Google Reader shut down announced ten years ago today

#43

Post by dmix »

jochem9 wrote: post #39
dmix wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also coincided with a persistent trend of HN itself no longer featuring random blog posts heavily but rather a) mostly popular news sites like NYTimes that finally started understanding the web demanded clickbait/Twitter-friendly high volume articles (where no one reads the article but shares the headline) and b) blogs that went viral via Twitter/FB/etc. That was the new reality a decade ago. Social media apps was…

Speak for yourself, I'm still heavily using RSS. I stumbled upon this thread via RSS.

Sure but I'm still speaking for the hundreds of thousands of tech people who didnt keep using RSS even when given alternatives. Feedly was around after Reader (started in 2008, the same year of my 14yr old HN account and 5 years before Reader shut down), even I used it for 6 months after Reader. You can pretend Google is why no one cares about RSS but I'm skeptical it's the root reason.

Re: Google Reader shut down announced ten years ago today

#44

Post by devn0ll »

jochem9 wrote: post #39
dmix wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also coincided with a persistent trend of HN itself no longer featuring random blog posts heavily but rather a) mostly popular news sites like NYTimes that finally started understanding the web demanded clickbait/Twitter-friendly high volume articles (where no one reads the article but shares the headline) and b) blogs that went viral via Twitter/FB/etc. That was the new reality a decade ago. Social media apps was…

Speak for yourself, I'm still heavily using RSS. I stumbled upon this thread via RSS.

+1 (something else that was killed by google but still everyone knows that means)

I used freshrss, and got to this article via RSS as well. It's my only source of news. I'm usually the first to know about new stuff in my circle of friends because of my carefully curated RSS feeds.

Re: Google Reader shut down announced ten years ago today

#45

Post by paxys »

There's so much "that was the day Google died" sentiment in this thread, while in the same ten years the share price of GOOG has gone up from $19.87 to $90.63 (adjusting for splits), wildly outperforming the rest of the market. Goes to show that the company considers a much wider audience than just the tech crowd when making key product decisions.

Re: Google Reader shut down announced ten years ago today

#46

Post by dmix »

srcreigh wrote: post #31
plorkyeran wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it was the first thing they'd killed which had been around for quite a while, still had devoted users, and Google didn't offer a replacement. If you look at the graveyard, the pre-Reader things they killed were things which had flopped (e.g. Buzz), things which were no longer relevant (e.g Gears), acquisitions, and mergers where they had two redundant products (e.g. Google Video).

I wasn’t reader user, but it seems to me like when advertising self interest took over

Meh the ad business was pretty established well before 2013 when Reader shut down. RSS was declining well before that. Google acquired Doubleclick in 2008 aka what became the real Adwords in its prime.

I personally don't expect tech conglomerates to be the ideal solution for niche markets. But I don't see many people providing good arguments why alternatives like Feedly didn't take off if there was really a strong market demand for RSS.

And I say that was an uber-fan of RSS back in the day.

Re: Google Reader shut down announced ten years ago today

#47

Post by qbasic_forever »

nirui wrote: post #42

> While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader. Back when Google was an underdog company in the market, they were desperately capturing the market share, and their strategy was basically throwing a lot of things at the wall and see what sticks (in a calculated way). I'd say Google Reader was one if the lucky coincidence they hit. Sadly,…

No the real reason Google Reader was shut down was because it was competing with Google Plus, their failed social network/Facebook compete. Vic Gundotra was the head of Google Plus product and was not shy or hiding that Google Reader had to go--at the time Reader had its own social features like the ability to subscribe to your friend's starred RSS feeds/stories and share them, comment on them, etc. It was purely a calculated move to kill Reader so people had to use Google Plus for sharing stories and commenting on them. This would goose the number of active Google Plus users and ensure Vic hit his targets for getting fat bonus payments.

This absolutely was not a case of "the product was finished and did all it needed to do"... people were pissed at what was happening and didn't want to move over to Google Plus (which completely lacked the core feature of reading RSS feeds, despite Gundotra claiming they would eventually implement it (shocker! they never did)).

The story of Google Reader's demise is purely a power grab by a mad exec/product leader that ran his product to failure and eventually was forced out of the company under allegations of being a sex pest to employees. Google Reader died for no good reason other than getting that piece of garbage some bonuses.

Re: Google Reader shut down announced ten years ago today

#49

Post by rtpg »

Will take this opportunity to point out the following:

- Almost all sites worth reading where an RSS feed makes sense... has an RSS feed

- The Old Reader is basically Google Reader. No weird design stuff going on. on iOS Reeder is a good app to hook it up to.

If you missed RSS, it's not cuz it went away. It's there waiting for you

Re: Google Reader shut down announced ten years ago today

#50

Post by rtpg »

JohnBooty wrote: post #15
wmf wrote: 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…

The second point is so big. Almost all alternatives was not "just" an RSS reader but had some weird crufty garbage over it. The RSS feeds never went away (of course some blogs got quieter over time), but other feed readers that were online were way too much oriented around the social web. Serious RSS readers were available as desktop clients, but that comes with its own sort of clunkiness.
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