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Google Reader is dead

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Re: Google Reader is dead

#151

Post by robotjosh »

laureny wrote: post #126
mikeash wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're attacking a straw man here. To attack Google for shutting down Reader in general is, I agree, silly. They don't owe us anything, and they managed the shutdown fairly gracefully. But that's not what was going on in the comment you replied to. He's pointing out that their stated justification doesn't make a lot of sense. Google says they're shutting down Reader to put more focus on a smaller number of products,…

> He's pointing out that their stated justification doesn't make a lot of sense. Google says they're shutting down Reader to put more focus on a smaller number of products, but they're just as scattered as ever You can't criticize Google for shutting down Reader and then accuse them of being scattered in the same sentence. By shutting down Reader, they are limiting their scattering, and Reader is not the only product…

Google Reader did nothing to contribute to "scatter" since it was closely related to gmail in function and interface.

Re: Google Reader is dead

#152

Post by d2ncal »

Nobody mentioned tinytinyrss - I found it to be the best rss reader as a google reader alternative.

Its open source and also has an android app that rocks.

Re: Google Reader is dead

#153

Post by cmpxchg8 »

mikeash wrote: post #124
batiudrami wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sick of this argument. Google is a company, they are not compelled to continue to support a product which is (presumably) not making money, or even if the resources they devote to it could be making more money elsewhere. Honestly I think Google went above and beyond by giving advance notice, having an API which allows feed exporting and allowing subscriptions to continue to be exported after they close it…

You're attacking a straw man here. To attack Google for shutting down Reader in general is, I agree, silly. They don't owe us anything, and they managed the shutdown fairly gracefully. But that's not what was going on in the comment you replied to. He's pointing out that their stated justification doesn't make a lot of sense. Google says they're shutting down Reader to put more focus on a smaller number of products,…

A lot of Googlers asked for reader to be saved as it was considered a very useful tool used by small amount of very devout users. The Google of today will cancel any product that cannot be monetized properly, ignoring all internal feedback.

Another example of how things have changed is the Hangouts app. Pretty much everyone who tested it internally asked for the status settings to be implemented before going public. It was ignored and that was the most criticized aspect of the app when it was publicly released.

The consequence of this is an eroded trust in the company and a reduced brand loyalty. I will think twice before using another Google product that might disappear in favor of some half-assed feature in G+, just because management has decided to bet the future of the company on social.

Re: Google Reader is dead

#154

Post by dredmorbius »

egeozcan wrote: post #17
steve19 wrote: post #8

Right up till the 11th hour I held out hope that Google would give Reader a last minute stay of execution. A sad day indeed.

Exactly my feelings. I actually kept the tab open to see if their API kept working but the feeds stopped loading and I hit F5. Oh, the horror...

I've got a tab still open and it's been updating as of 16 minutes ago (now being Tue Jul 2 15:27:02 UTC 2013), though the same URL in a new tab brings up the tombstone.

Re: Google Reader is dead

#155

Post by dredmorbius »

jvdh wrote: post #94
bdz wrote: post #28

"... we’re pouring all of our energy into fewer products. We think that kind of focus will make for a better user experience." Yeah, Reader held back the development of the robot car, glasses, floating balloon internet and the brazilian social site...

Yes, keeping a webservice running takes time. Especially one that's being hit millions of times a day.

The way Google runs its services, much of the infrastructure is an existing back-end (yay, map reduce, also an inherent front-side CDN). There's some application-specific hosting, but it's a relatively thin layer. So the hosting costs aren't all that huge.

My read: the stated rationale for killing Google Reader, especially in light of the huge cry of protest and impacts on blog traffic (Rob Malda posted web traffic results showing huge declines at WordPress and other blog sites at WashPo) suggests to me something else at work.

Just a hunch.

Re: Google Reader is dead

#156

Post by droidist2 »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #141
droidist2 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't 99% of all complaints/concerns (especially on the internet) be classified as first world problems?

If you live in the first world, sure.

If it applies to almost anything, what's the purpose behind it? Is it just kind of a lighthearted way to remind oneself to feel grateful and that daily problems aren't so big in the scheme of things? #AtLeastIHaveShelterAndPlentyToEat doesn't have the same ring to it.

Or maybe now it's mostly used preemptively against ridicule? When complaining about something, if you add #firstworldproblems it makes it impossible to accuse you of whining.

Re: Google Reader is dead

#157

Post by beatgammit »

res0nat0r wrote: post #148
coldtea wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can't criticize Google for shutting down Reader and then accuse them of being scattered in the same sentence. By shutting down Reader, they are limiting their scattering, and Reader is not the only product they are shutting down. No, you very much can. Since, you know, they are shutting down a product in their main area of expertise, only to pursue BS non-products all around the map.

I don't think Google want to remain "experts" in the complex field of RSS aggregation anymore. It was probably a fun side project for a group of engineers, was written, then got sidetracked, then became not interesting to work on anymore, then was shutdown to focus on other more interesting tasks. Just like what their statement above says...

I think you're missing the point. Check out Google's mission statement:

> Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful

How is Google Reader less fitting than, say, self-driving cars or balloon Internet? An RSS reader is quite literally a way to organize the world's information, perhaps the most relevant of the product offerings.

It's not about what is "more interesting", but "more relevant". They're closing down relevant products for interesting ones, which is not good...

Re: Google Reader is dead

#158

Post by bentcorner »

davidjohnstone wrote: post #42
steve19 wrote: post #8

Right up till the 11th hour I held out hope that Google would give Reader a last minute stay of execution. A sad day indeed.

As much as my life would have been easier this year without the decision to close Google Reader (I think this is what they call #firstworldproblems), it's a good thing that they didn't change their mind and decide to not shut it down at the last minute. Too many people have invested too much time in creating viable alternatives to Google Reader, and un-discontinuing it would have thrown a massive spanner in the works…

For me at least, having Reader shut down made me realize that depending on products delivered for free is ultimately unsustainable - I have no control over those services and if I can't figure out how that company is making money from me, there's little justification for that provider to continue providing that service, unmodified, for perpetuity. Self-hosted services are the only ones that you can truly rely on.

I'm hoping I'm not the only one that has come to this conclusion.

Re: Google Reader is dead

#159

Post by jmduke »

droidist2 wrote: post #156
pavel_lishin wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you live in the first world, sure.

If it applies to almost anything, what's the purpose behind it? Is it just kind of a lighthearted way to remind oneself to feel grateful and that daily problems aren't so big in the scheme of things? #AtLeastIHaveShelterAndPlentyToEat doesn't have the same ring to it. Or maybe now it's mostly used preemptively against ridicule? When complaining about something, if you add #firstworldproblems it makes it impossible to…

Is it just kind of a lighthearted way to remind oneself to feel grateful and that daily problems aren't so big in the scheme of things?

This is the way I've always interpreted it, which is why I thought these videos ("First World Problems Read by Third World People") were so weird and off the mark:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ugM7H4EEKU*

Re: Google Reader is dead

#160

Post by tr4656 »

beaker52 wrote: post #31

I wish there was a decent alternative out there. They all seem to be a bit unpolished. The most polished alternative I've seen is Feedly. I wrote to the founder about this many moons ago explaining that in trying to be 'innovative' with the UI, for me the whole user experience detracts so badly from the functionality I want from the app that I don't want to use it. Where is the alternative, with the polish, without t…

What's wrong with Feedbin or Fever?
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