Google Reader is now gone

SAN FRANCISCO, USA: Google closed its Google Reader service on Monday (1 July) and is unlikely to re-open it.

Google Reader's "RSS feeds" had long been a popular way to stay up-to-date on subjects of interest, using these RSS feeds but users are increasingly turning to social media such as Facebook and Twitter to get the information they want.

"Most content is now tied to some dedicated platform or other," said Silicon Valley analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group.

"Getting rid of this service shows good governance by Google. In a world of limited resources, this service just wasn't making the grade," he said.

However, thousands of diehard Google Reader fans were outraged by the move.

A 'Keep Google Reader Running' petition online at change.org had nearly 154,000 signatures by Monday (1 July). A 'Please Don't Kill Google Reader' petition at the same website logged 7,598 supporters.

"This is about us using your product because we love it, because it makes our lives better and because we trust you not to nuke it," read the first petition, started by a New York City man. "So, please don't destroy that trust."

Pleas ignored

Google was not deterred, and visitors to Reader on Monday were greeted with a message reminding them that the service would cease to exist at the end of the day.

Online services such as Feedly, Digg Reader, Newsblur and even Flipboard have stepped up as alternatives for Google Reader, which made its debut in October 2005.

"We want everyone to migrate from Google Reader to Feedly," the company said in a blog post last week. "Feedly, has won top marks as an alternative to Google Reader," it claimed in the blog.

"Google touches millions upon millions of people," Enderle said. "So, even if a small percentage of people are upset it could translate into the hundreds of thousands of users."

The demise of Google Reader was among many hot topics on Twitter this week, with many of the one-to-many messages focused on advice about switching to rival services.

Ironically, it was Twitter that helped make Google Reader obsolete by letting people get rapid-fire updates from anyone in real-time on desktop or mobile devices instead of checking the RSS feeds in Web browsing software.

But serious concern has been raised by users in the Middle East, who note that Google Reader is used in places such as Iran to side-step Internet censorship.

Source: AFP via I-Net Bridge