Here's Why Google Reader Really Got the Axe • Hacker News Board

Re: Here's Why Google Reader Really Got the Axe

#31

Post by chaz » Thu, Jun 06, 2013, 2:03 PM UTC

Mithaldu wrote: post #19

chaz wrote: post #15

RSS peaked in 2006 and has been dying since. I suspect it was from the rise of social networks. Though not a replacement feature-wise, social networks have been competing for time and attention from users since day 1, and RSS readers lost. Google Reader was too late to a declining trend, and it was just a matter of time before it was going to get killed off anyway. http://www.google.com/trends/explore?q=rss#q=rss&cmp…

Using Google Trends to try to divine how "alive" something is is fruitless, as the graphs you get are displaying the percentage of all internet searches that that use that term. Since the internet is constantly growing and new terms are being added all the time, it is impossible to say whether a declining graph on google trends means that absolute number of searches are going down or up.

Net new search terms aren't being added at the rate you think. Try searching for highly generic terms such as "food" or "blue" and it's pretty much flat. While many new terms are being added, old terms are getting obsoleted almost as fast.

The point still stands: share of web interest in RSS has still been displaced by other ways of spending time. Whether it's social media, Netflix, or cat photos, RSS simply hasn't grown with the rest of the web.

Re: Here's Why Google Reader Really Got the Axe

#32

Post by panzagl » Thu, Jun 06, 2013, 2:15 PM UTC

If google really wants me to move to google+, now, or current, where is the big shiny button that says 'load feeds into x'? Incompetence seems to be playing as big a role as strategy.

Re: Here's Why Google Reader Really Got the Axe

#33

Post by r080 » Thu, Jun 06, 2013, 2:16 PM UTC

gridmaths wrote: post #18

jinushaun wrote: post #7

How is Reader passive versus Twitter and G+? It's completely active because you have to sift through hundreds of items and you have to decide what's important and interesting enough to share. That's a lot of work by the user. Passive news consumption is not Reader, but Twitter-like services where "interesting" articles are pushed to you. Twitter also doesn't have an unread count, so you only see what's shared recentl…

If I could take rss feeds from the N web sites I like to get new from, and pipe/merge/filter that into a live twitter stream. that would be kind of useful. If I could share that with my cabal, and use the clicks or upvotes to optimize the stream, that would be nice. hmm..

yahoo pipes can provide you with pipe/merge/filter. Twitter part might be more difficult.

Re: Here's Why Google Reader Really Got the Axe

#34

Post by rasterizer » Thu, Jun 06, 2013, 2:19 PM UTC

davidgerard wrote: post #27

MONOLITH VIEW, Silicone Valley, Thursday (NTN) — We’re in a new world of computing. You need “personal”, “social” and “on the go”. So “search” will “join the social” on Google Plus. We know Search has a devoted following who will be very sad to see it go. We’re sad too. There are two simple reasons for this: usage of Google Plus^W^WSearch has declined, and as a company we’re pouring all of our energy into fewer produ…

It's funny how some people can produce walls of text attacking Google at the drop of a hat.

If you've actually read that post you'd have noticed that the author is misrepresenting her assumptions as facts by repurposing out of context comments.

The person she was quoting wasn't even speaking about Reader nor was he granting her an interview (the author doesn't specify in what context did she hear all that) it was just another serving of the generic "news in the mobile era" spiel.

Re: Here's Why Google Reader Really Got the Axe

#35

Post by dmitripopov_com » Thu, Jun 06, 2013, 2:23 PM UTC

I think there are two types of users in this case - "consumers" and "researchers". Social news are good for "consumers" with their usage pattern "Read-Like-Forget". They consume to feed their hunger and nothing more. "Researchers" carefully select trustful sources and follow them, they need a tool that allows to keep track and never miss important info. "Researcher" pattern is impossible in the "social" noisy flood of news.

Re: Here's Why Google Reader Really Got the Axe

#36

Post by davidgerard » Thu, Jun 06, 2013, 2:29 PM UTC

rasterizer wrote: post #34

davidgerard wrote: post #27

MONOLITH VIEW, Silicone Valley, Thursday (NTN) — We’re in a new world of computing. You need “personal”, “social” and “on the go”. So “search” will “join the social” on Google Plus. We know Search has a devoted following who will be very sad to see it go. We’re sad too. There are two simple reasons for this: usage of Google Plus^W^WSearch has declined, and as a company we’re pouring all of our energy into fewer produ…

It's funny how some people can produce walls of text attacking Google at the drop of a hat. If you've actually read that post you'd have noticed that the author is misrepresenting her assumptions as facts by repurposing out of context comments. The person she was quoting wasn't even speaking about Reader nor was he granting her an interview (the author doesn't specify in what context did she hear all that) it was jus…

Obviously I'm a Facebook shill.

Re: Here's Why Google Reader Really Got the Axe

#37

Post by davidgerard » Thu, Jun 06, 2013, 2:31 PM UTC

jmduke wrote: post #20

ProblemFactory wrote: post #11

> “Users with smartphones and tablets are consuming news in bits and bites throughout the course of the day — replacing the old standard behaviors of news consumption over breakfast along with a leisurely read at the end of the day.” This is precisely why Google Reader is a valuable tool. I subscribe to the belief that if an article is not worth reading 2 weeks later, it's not worth reading at all. Facebook, Twitter,…

> I subscribe to the belief that if an article is not worth reading 2 weeks later, it's not worth reading at all. I realized that I had been spending upwards of two hours a day reading non-programming articles (the liked of Wired, TechCrunch, ATD, etc.) and then also spending the evening wondering where all my time had gone. I started shunning all those articles (I keep reading HN and programming articles in general…

I concur. I've had no broadband at home for nearly a month (as a friend pointed out, OpenReach is, after 40 years, several renamings and a privatization, still basically the good old GPO, except a line takes a few weeks now instead of six months). Finally dredging through the unread mountain of books, and that's ebooks.

Re: Here's Why Google Reader Really Got the Axe

#38

Post by hayksaakian » Thu, Jun 06, 2013, 3:08 PM UTC

gridmaths wrote: post #18

jinushaun wrote: post #7

How is Reader passive versus Twitter and G+? It's completely active because you have to sift through hundreds of items and you have to decide what's important and interesting enough to share. That's a lot of work by the user. Passive news consumption is not Reader, but Twitter-like services where "interesting" articles are pushed to you. Twitter also doesn't have an unread count, so you only see what's shared recentl…

If I could take rss feeds from the N web sites I like to get new from, and pipe/merge/filter that into a live twitter stream. that would be kind of useful. If I could share that with my cabal, and use the clicks or upvotes to optimize the stream, that would be nice. hmm..

Create a new twitter account Add each RSS feed to IFTTT from RSS to twitter.

Follow that twitter account.

Re: Here's Why Google Reader Really Got the Axe

#39

Post by jacquesm » Thu, Jun 06, 2013, 3:12 PM UTC

mindcrime wrote: post #30

jacques_chester wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Get Big Quick".

Oh, right... of course. And let's not forget it's closely related cousin, "Who Cares If We Lose Money On Every Transaction, We'll Make Up For It In Volume". Not as nice an acronym though: WCIWLMOETWMUFIIV.

This definitely did not go out of style yet, the Milo Minderbinder school of management is doing just fine.

Re: Here's Why Google Reader Really Got the Axe

#40

Post by jacquesm » Thu, Jun 06, 2013, 3:17 PM UTC

rasterizer wrote: post #34

davidgerard wrote: post #27

MONOLITH VIEW, Silicone Valley, Thursday (NTN) — We’re in a new world of computing. You need “personal”, “social” and “on the go”. So “search” will “join the social” on Google Plus. We know Search has a devoted following who will be very sad to see it go. We’re sad too. There are two simple reasons for this: usage of Google Plus^W^WSearch has declined, and as a company we’re pouring all of our energy into fewer produ…

It's funny how some people can produce walls of text attacking Google at the drop of a hat. If you've actually read that post you'd have noticed that the author is misrepresenting her assumptions as facts by repurposing out of context comments. The person she was quoting wasn't even speaking about Reader nor was he granting her an interview (the author doesn't specify in what context did she hear all that) it was jus…

No, that's just funny. If that is an attack then google has a lot more to worry about than I thought they did.

And 'Google Plus Video' sounds just good enough that it might happen.