Google killing Reader

Paul Lundgren Mar 13, 2013 36 Comments

If you are reading this through your Google Reader, you already know you won’t be after July 1. If you’re not, you probably don’t care. But in case further explanation is necessary, read “RIP Google Reader” on Mashable.

So, just out of curiosity, how many of you care? Will any of you stop reading PDD because of this, or will we never know because you’re reading the RSS feed and are too lazy to log in and complain about it?

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R.I.P.

36 Comments

Starfire

about 12 years ago 

I do. I have had a Reader tab open on my computer-phone-tablet since the beginning. Maybe we should start the PDDreader

Paul Lundgren

about 12 years ago 

I follow about a dozen sites on Google Reader and I can't image actually going to those sites one at a time.

Cory Fechner

about 12 years ago 

Google Reader is dying, but we have five worthy alternatives by Cnet.com
With Google Reader on its way out, many users will be in need of a replacement for their RSS subscriptions. Here's a roundup of what we think are the best alternatives available.

TimK

about 12 years ago 

Having met a couple of Google bigwigs in person, the problem is numbers. Google wants everything on a trajectory that is ramping up and apparently the number of users has been steadily declining.

mumpsimus

about 12 years ago 

First they announced they are killing iGoogle and now Google Reader. I subscribe to about 25 feeds, so this will have a major impact on me.

Barrett Chase

about 12 years ago 

*snaps pencil in fist, slams fist against desk* 

*mutters through clenched teeth* What next? Gmail?

Barrett Chase

about 12 years ago 

So what are some more Google Reader alternatives? Cory linked to a story containing five, four of which are mobile-only apps. I'm looking for one that works on the web as well.

I'm not a huge fan of Feedly. A lot of RSS readers (such as Flipboard) present feeds in a magazine-style layout, which I don't want at all. What are some simple newsreaders?

Adem

about 12 years ago 

This is gonna affect me since I use Google Reader every day to follow all manner of things. 

I'll be likely switching to whatever service that the iPhone app Reeder hooks into. If any. Oh god. I hate change.

Les F

about 12 years ago 

Some alternatives from a posting over on G+
http://lifehacker.com/5990456/google-reader-is-getting-shut-down-here-are-the-best-alternatives

@Barrett don't jinx us by mentioning Gmail!

Also.. how do I REPLY to a post and do fancy editing? Like making the above link 'pretty'.

Joel

about 12 years ago 

AND... GASP!... They are killing the iGoggle start page! This has been my home page forever! How else will I start the intergoogle?

adam

about 12 years ago 

I'm dependent on getting content delivered to me - letting the information find you is much better than actively having to seek it out.

As I transition, I've personally become a fan of Feedly. Free Tech for Teachers has offers its approval of the program here   http://goo.gl/c38q8  as well as a list other great readers.  

Anyone use Reeder?  Or Google Currents?

Les F

about 12 years ago 

Possible iGoogle alternatives..

This one seems to do about 75% of what I did in iGoogle. Its not as simple as iGoogle and there aren't as many 'apps/plugins' but I got my feeds, weather, netcams etc working in it: 
http://www.protopage.com/

Another I just started looking at
http://www.netvibes.com

BadCat!

about 12 years ago 

So iGoogle is my homepage, and then I use Reader to follow ~200 feeds. I really never go out to any websites to check them, I rely on Reader to bring it to me.

I know I can't complain too much about a free service shutting down, but man, this really affects 90% of how I use the web.

-Berv

about 12 years ago 

Never heard of it.

baci

about 12 years ago 

It's all html5-y but Pulse.me looks interesting. I directly added an obscure atom feed from a project I'm working on and it pulled it fine. Again, you hardcore RSS'er might look at the web presentation as being too graphically driven but it's pretty cool if you like that sort of thing.

baci

about 12 years ago 

Also, there's this news on the whole thing. Makes me wonder if you won't see some other Google reader surface. Maybe integrated directly into Google+.

Karasu

about 12 years ago 

Yeah, I really can't imagine tracking all the sites I have in Reader manually. Twitter and Facebook feeds certainly aren't going to drive traffic from me.

I've been looking at The Old Reader, but they have limited slots for importing from Google, so I haven't been able to (easily) load in there yet. Loading all the feeds in one by one? Ech.

quirtep

about 12 years ago 

Slate's take:

The Death of Google Reader Paves The Way For Real RSS Businesses

quirtep

about 12 years ago 

And strange timing after this New Yorker article:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/01/everyone-interesting-is-a-felon.html

Barrett Chase

about 12 years ago 

Adem and adam, I use Reeder on my phone, but Reeder only syncs with Google Reader. They've tweeted that they have a solution, but I don't know what that solution is.

bluntcakes

about 12 years ago 

I'm a bit bummed as well. I love my Reader! I started looking at Feedly today (I want web-based). I'll check out Pulse, thanks Baci!

I fear Google may just try and lure us into actually using Google+, which I'm not very excited about.

jesusita

about 12 years ago 

I switched from Google Reader over to Netvibes a few years ago (right after Google started "marking as read" anything that had been in Reader for 30 days, whether I'd read them or not). I love it for the ability to sort my feeds into categories along with some other nifty benefits. I'm pretty sure I found it while searching for a new, good alternative and after trying about five other ones that just didn't work the way I wanted them to. (The export from Google and import into Netvibes was easy and painless.)

in.dog.neato

about 12 years ago 

Yeah, this both sucks and blows.

I get most of my news from Google Reader ... RSS is my Bible. I can get my "Savage Love" on in the same reading list as Alternet and I uproxx.

(I just read a story today about some Japanese legislator who is getting hassled because he wears a Lucha Libre wrestling mask to session. He goes by the name of Skull Reaper Ai-ji or something like that ... where the hell am I gonna read about all the goofy shit like that now? Sure ... I could go to the source, but I like having all my info aggregated so I can sift through it and pick.)

patrickmakesmusic

about 12 years ago 

I also use Reeder on my iPhone. And my iPad. And my Mac. Let's hope they come up with something quick. I'll happily pay for the service that Google has decided to stop giving away for free!

Les F

about 12 years ago 

Netvibes seems to do it for me with both RSS feeds and most of the iGoogle apps I used.  I like it over protopage at this point.  Spent a bit of time with it last night and found it quite easy once you get over the initial learning curve. (IMHO at least).  I had set up protopage but never really used it.  Will see how netvibes goes.

hbh1

about 12 years ago 

Oh my god, finally there's an advantage to never keeping up with the technagoogles. I kept thinking I should get on the RSS bandwagon, but I never got around to it. 

I actually go to my sites from my Bookmarks Bar. What a silly old lady I be. But now not so much! 

I suppose the thing is that I always wanted to keep my online news reading under control, so my daily visits tend to be under ten sites. (personalized Google News, NASA's daily pic, DNT, PDD, MeFi, reddit, and FB--that's it.)  I can do all my newspaper-equivalent reading in under an hour if I want. Of course this means that I do nearly no personal blog reading whatsoever, unless someone sends me a link via FB. I only look over Slate/Salon/HuffPo when I'm bored and looking to kill time.

hbh1

about 12 years ago 

(Yes, I know I can still do RSS, but I really like going to sites the old way. I disabled my little pop-up to tell me when someone posts to FB too. I don't want to be constantly clicking on things when I'm supposed to be working.)

hbh1

about 12 years ago 

'Course, this would all be different if I had a smart-phone. If I had a fancyphone I'd be one of those people who never stopped looking at it.

Chickonen

about 12 years ago 

Another heavy RSS user here. I'm not terribly concerned about locating a replacement for Google Reader, but I am concerned to see Google distance itself from RSS. 

As long as RSS continues to be active and well supported, I'm happy.

Cory Fechner

about 12 years ago 

This seems like a good solution, haven't tried it, but if someone does let us know what you think.

"We at Zite were sad to hear about Google Reader's impending demise.  Google Reader and Zite have always been complementary products: GR providing news from sources you've subscribed to manually and Zite giving you news algorithmically-targeted from the whole web.

Since Google Reader is dying, we created a replacement in Zite that doesn't depend on Google's infrastructure.  From start to finish, in six hours."

http://blog.zite.com/2013/03/14/google-reader-is-dead-so-we-rebuilt-it-for-you-in-zite-in-six-hours/

in.dog.neato

about 12 years ago 

While it is probably not related, I'm almost glad I went with the iPad over the Nexus.

I'll be checking out Zite soon.

kimr55760

about 12 years ago 

I don't know what I'm going to do! I subscribe to over 200 feeds on Google Reader. I have Feedly on my Ipad and some of the other readers but on my computer I love the simple Reader interface.

fonixmunkee

about 12 years ago 

I will still read PDD, but I'm not sure how. I've tried a lot of the so-called "alternatives" to Google Reader and very few of them can even get close to the ease and simplicity of Google Reader.

I can't remember the last time I "visited" a website: CNN, PDD, NNC, KBJR, blah blah blah ... I've always syndicated their content via Google Reader, and visited their website when I needed to post a comment ... like right now.

BadCat!

about 12 years ago 

I'm hoping that over the next few months, alternative RSS readers will mature a bit.

Cory Fechner

about 12 years ago 

We have the official new PDD RSS reader right here:
http://fotcorn.github.io/StarRSS/#http://www.perfectduluthday.com/feed/

Tell us what you think.

Paul Lundgren

about 12 years ago 

A look at the Duluth News Tribune's feed from last night.

[img]http://www.perfectduluthday.com/wp-content/uploads/comments/DNTFeed.jpg[/img]

Onion story from earlier in the day:

BREAKING: Has The Word 'Breaking' Lost All Its Meaning?

WATERTOWN, MA—Citing exhaustive use of the word "breaking" to preface media coverage of today's ongoing manhunt for one of the alleged Boston Marathon bombers, The Onion is now questioning whether the word "breaking" has lost all its meaning. According to sources, the word 'breaking' has been used over 4,000 times across a variety of media platforms in the past 24 hours and has been repeatedly used to categorize news items related to the Boston Marathon bomber suspect that are not, in fact, substantively different from earlier reports, and thus not truly "breaking" by any traditional definition of that term. Acknowledging that 700 separate "breaking" news bulletins have been published since the beginning of this breaking news article, The Onion continues to wonder whether this word can ever be taken seriously again.

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