Will you miss Google Reader?
A lot of people use RSS, but it's profile has largely been eclipsed by snazzier social media technology. The main idea behind RSS was to get updates from your favourite websites all in one place without having to go to each site separately. There are a number of ways to do this from browser add ons, downloading specialized software or simply creating an account with a web based reader. The latter is the most convenient and of these options Google Reader is one of the most widely used.
But Google is pulling the plug1 on Google Reader. Perhaps people in North America are more inclined to use their news feeds on facebook and their twitter feeds. Apparen'tly less than 10 percent of people even use RSS1, but that's still a huge number. A great deal of users also use it overseas where for whatever reason, it's often possible to access content that would otherwise be blocked by national firewalls2
Google has its own social networking service (Google +) and they would certainly like to see more people make use of it because for news traffic at least Reader still has it soundly beat. Will this increase people migrating to Google +? that remains to be seen. Many are certainly migrating to Feedly.
Other Web Based Readers
They say Bloglines is back up and running but I still have to get my confirmation e-mail
There's The Old Reader which is designed after an older popular version of Google Reader. Last time I visited this page they were upgrading and promising to be back soon. They showed random pictures of cats in the meantime while they tinkered.
I guess it proves there's a lot of busy Web based reader services out there just now.
Whatever you feel about Google's decision, the good news is you have until July 1st to figure out an alternative.
Do you use Web based RSS?
Will you miss Google Reader?
Do you plan to migrate your feeds overto another service, or will you take this opportunity to clean house?
Sources
1Focussing on the Google Reader Shutdown by Taylor Buley, Techcrunch, Sunday March 17th
2Will Killing Google Reader Increase Global Censorship? Chris Taylor Mashable Monday March 18th
3 Google Reader Still Drives More Traffic than Google+ John Hermann Buzzfeed Thursday March 14th
2 thoughts on “Will you miss Google Reader?”
I use Google Reader almost daily and I’m really not sure what I’m going to use in July. I hear that Digg is working away on a replacement for Reader, so I’m going to wait and see what they come up with. Here’s what they have to say:
http://blog.digg.com/post/45355701332/were-building-a-reader
I just signed up with Inoreader http://inoreader.com.
It’s quite similar to Google Reader and is working well, so far. I was also using Netvibes for a bit, which is also a good alternative. Both are good if you need a Reader that does not require apps installed in your browser.