Another competition-demolishing service bites the dust

The Google Official Blog has announced a second spring of cleaning, closing yet more services. This time round, Google Reader — used both as an RSS reader and a sync service for third-party RSS clients — is facing the axe.

Google Reader first arrived in 2005, but the Google Reader blog explained that usage has declined, hence why the service is being killed. It also said that Google as a company is “pouring all of [its] energy into fewer products," adding: "We think that kind of focus will make for a better user experience."

The news was received well. On the Google Reader blog’s point about pouring energy into fewer products, developer Jordi Böhme López noted on Twitter: “We need to focus! Keep the self-driving car, magic glasses, laptop, handheld OS and Brazilian social network. Ditch the feed reader.”

On his blog, coder and security consultant Aldo Cortesi called Google a “destroyer of ecosystems,” likening its 2005 entry into RSS to “a giant toddler leaving destruction in its wake”. The free Reader essentially squashed competition, said Cortesi, who argued the service’s closure will harm an already “deeply ill” news system, and that it would have been better for the web had Reader never existed at all.

Marco Arment was more positive and saw opportunities for filling the gap in the market that Reader will leave behind: “We’re finally likely to see substantial innovation and competition in RSS desktop apps and sync platforms for the first time in almost a decade. It may suck in the interim before great alternatives mature and become widely supported, but in the long run, trust me, this is excellent news.”

But IT and multimedia director Stephen Hackett worried on his blog 512 Pixels that alternatives may fail to come to light, and dismissed those claiming Twitter already fills the void: “RSS is nice because everything comes flooding in, but stops, waiting on me to hit ‘Mark All As Read’. On the other hand, tweets stream by, endlessly, without regard to what I — as the user — am doing.”

Google Reader will close on July 1, 2013. In the meantime, Google Takeout can be used to export your data.

http://m.netmagazine.com/news/google-kill-google-reader-132625

The headline is quite sensational. "Kill" makes Google seem evil.

pro01: The headline is quite sensational. "Kill" makes Google seem evil.

ok, you be 2nd to comment.

i can now see how those people feel

3rd to comment. Yaaayyyyyyyy even doe i have nothing meaningful to say . my Oga on top will understand oh my gould.. iam so hexited

Well, since average naija no dey read up and down I guess nothing corn-sign us.

piphunter: 3rd to comment. Yaaayyyyyyyy even doe i have nothing meaningful to say . my Oga on top will understand oh my gould.. iam so hexited

i can feel you son! Honestly, now I know how you people feel. Hope they will give price because meself don win o!

LasBonBoi: Well, since average naija no dey read up and down I guess nothing corn-sign us.

our reading culture is dying gradually. Writing culture na him worst; not with sms and phone call. who writes again this days. even in some offices, no more memo

I like the new abbreviation for price of garri P.O.G

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A25VgNZDQ08 (avoid the comments for best results!)

I don't know what google reader really its. But can someone enlighten us. And will the stopping of google reader affect things online.

Abi oo..tell me how many Nigerians or nairalanders know what an rss is or what feeds are.

You post things that will benefit people in the it section but the mods only have eyes for placing thread of no valuable use to the frontpage.
Posts like this that would benefit users would never reach Fp.

https://www.nairaland.com/1225219/getting-most-out-laptop-battery

https://www.nairaland.com/1225790/conserving-data-usage-modem-users

bory09: I don't know what google reader really its. But can someone enlighten us. And will the stopping of google reader affect things online.

It is a feed reader that tracks new posts on websites based on user settings and reports to users a short caption of new updates on the website. For example you dont need to go to yaho newws and be refershing your page every second to know what the latest is, an rss reader does that for you and updates you anytime a new content is posted on to a selected website.

Well, Google Currents on my Jellybean is better.
Was just wondering what would become of it the other day. Google Currents and Google Reader does the same thing, but Google Current does it better.

when i saw "kill" the thing fear me o. anyway how does dat reduce my browsing speed?

What could be happening?? Almost seven posts hidden just now

ok.

sureteeboy: What could be happening?? Almost seven posts hidden just now

wait here, make I go ask oga at the top.

sureteeboy: What could be happening?? Almost seven posts hidden just now

does post hidden really deserve. Becos i don't why people should try and display their childness character online to the world. First, second, third, fourth to comment. Another style has come out 'i don't know what to comment or press' this is bad its not honouring. If you want to behave childish why can't call your friends and relatives. Those people understand you.

sureteeboy: What could be happening?? Almost seven posts hidden just now

those post hidden really deserve. Becos i don't why people should try and display their childness character online to the world. First, second, third, fourth to comment. Another style has come out 'i don't know what to comment or press' this is bad its not honouring. If you want to behave childish why can't call your friends and relatives. Those people understand you.

sureteeboy: What could be happening?? Almost seven posts hidden just now

those post hidden really deserve it. Becos i don't know why people should try and display their mumulus character online to the world. First, second, third, fourth to comment. Another style has just come out 'i don't know what to comment or press' this is bad its not honouring. If you want to behave childish why can't you call your friends and relatives. Those people understand you, instead of disgracing urself here. Its not funny no gift and reward for this. Take note

MajorJ: how does this affect the price of anything, even garri?

Wow...This is so sad. I'm a big user of RSS feeds on my fone to keep up to date with news and gist. I even sometimes access Nairaland through feeds since there's no Nairaland Mobile App yet. Google reader is the main feed reader available and many other applications incorporate it in them.

piphunter: 3rd to comment. Yaaayyyyyyyy even doe i have nothing meaningful to say . my Oga on top will understand oh my gould.. iam so hexited

who the hell is your oga? Abi him wan pai ni?

Joavid: when i saw "kill" the thing fear me o. anyway how does dat reduce my browsing speed?

If you ask me. Na who i go ask?