Earlier this week Google announced the cancellation of Google Reader, probably the most used web based RSS reader. As of the 1st of July 2013 you won’t be able to use Google Reader anymore. According to Google Reader I’ve been using it since 15th of April 2011. Almost 2 full years now. I’ve been subscribed to 77 RSS/Atom feeds. Imagine having to check all those websites manually on a regular basis.
I began using Google Reader because manually checking out my most visited websites, around 6-7, was becoming too time consuming. Time that can be spent on more important things. I found Google Reader to be of great use to filter out the interesting articles and updates from all of the other noise that’s thrown in your face. We live in an age where we’re being fed so much information (really too much) that good tools are required to filter out the noise.
Google Reader provided that. And now Google is taking it away from us. From me. Sure, it’s their good right because it’s not as if it was a paid service (Earth to Google! I wouldn’t mind paying for it!).
With Google Reader disappearing some of my conveniences will disappear as well. If behind a PC I would log on to the Google Reader website and start consuming my feeds. If on the road, or on the coach, I fired up Reeder on iPad to stay up to date. All synchronized.
Though Reeder for iPad did announce that it won’t end with Google Reader ending I’ve yet to hear an announcement from them to find out which service(s) they are going to support next.
Also, with Google seemingly pulling the plug on RSS/Atom support (they already revoked their RSS subscribe plugin for Chrome) I wonder what’s next. I wouldn’t be too surprised if they cancel Feedburner next. My blog feed is actually being supplied by it, though I must confess I never check it to find out about usage statistics. Still, I expect I should update my RSS/Atom links soon.
To prevent Google from taking down Reader a petition has been started. I signed it, but I doubt it’ll have any effect. Even if they would decide to keep the service running the damage has already been done. People are massively migrating to other services and I think people once again realized that Google doesn’t hesitate to cancel one of their services as they don’t care much about their users.
Personally I don’t mind having to migrate to another service (hell, I’d even write my own if I have to) but for me my biggest inconvenience is no longer being able to consume my feeds on my iPad. I know Feedly is one of the services I can migrate to, but I don’t like the app. And yes, this post may be a rant on Google and it actually is. I’m pissed at Google even though I know I’ve no right to be.
You pretty much summed up my feelings about it too. Sure, it was a free service and there are other online readers out there, but I’ve started to think twice about my reliance on Google’s products. I think there are wider implications for the future of RSS, too. It seems a shame for Google not to continue their support for such a useful open standard.
Already since a couple of years the RSS subscribe buttons have been disappearing from browsers. Both Firefox and Internet Explorer had this built in, but if I’m not mistaken that’s no longer the case.
When I want to subscribe to a feed I always have to dig into the page source of a website to find the link to the feed.
So yeah, with Google killing off Reader I doubt it’s a good thing for RSS.
Yesterday I’ve also installed Feedly in Chrome and configured my iPad and iPod. Looking at the screenshots it should support a listing just like Google Reader did, but I can change whatever setting I want but nothing changes. So Feedly isn’t for me.