David Cummings on Startups

Google Reader End of Life

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David Cummings

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Google Reader is one the few products I use every single day. There are a number of blogs and sites I enjoy staying up-to-date with, especially ones related to entrepreneurship and startups (my favorite blogs). Yesterday, like millions of other people, I read that Google is shutting the service down July 1st to focus on their core products.

Here are a few thoughts on Google Reader:

  • As a product, it solves a real need in the market, but Google needs billion dollar opportunities, of which it is not
  • RSS, the XML format used to share information, caught on in the enterprise but never transcended to consumers
  • Twitter, as a way to share and find relevant content, fills the human desire to consume fresh information
  • Services like Feedly and NewsBlur are available providing similar functionality

Google Reader is a valuable and useful tool that wasn’t able to meet its owner’s ambitions. RIP.

What else? What are some other thoughts on Google Reader?

Comments

3 responses to “Google Reader End of Life”

  1. Justin Yarmark (@jyarmark) Avatar
    Justin Yarmark (@jyarmark)

    I think that this will give some Developers or another firm the opportunity to make a truly great RSS reader. Google too often tries to build something doesn’t put in all the necessary features and limits investment so the product is caught in some purgatory. Maybe now RSS will step up into the limelight.

    Reply
  2. John Peltier Avatar
    John Peltier

    Twitter doesn’t provide a similar consumption experience IMO. I’ll be using feedly because RSS isn’t dead, it’s vital to my daily activities as well.

    Reply
  3. Tom Powell Avatar
    Tom Powell

    I wasn’t happy to hear about it either — I’ve used Reader consistently for 6 or 7 years now. There are a whole host of sites from which I don’t want to miss a single post (this site included I might add) and RSS is the only way to accomplish this.

    However, I am not worried about a solid replacement coming along (whether it is a paid web app or not) as enough of a reaction has been kicked up signaling that a slick RSS reader is still a necessity.

    Reply

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