Google are killing Reader, their RSS feed aggregator:
Official Blog: A second spring of cleaning
“We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites. While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader.”
Who cares about RSS? I do!
Google cite declining Reader use and I wonder if Twitter and Facebook have killed RSS? While I use both, tolerating Facebook and loving Twitter, I still use RSS in the way I used to use newspapers!
I don’t read all the content of all 1200+ feeds I subscribe to but use them to get information about a subject when I need it.
Today the Formula 1 season begins so I’ll review the bunch of Formula 1 site feeds I follow for the the first time in months. I was a work when Samsung launched the Galaxy S4 but reviewing my mobile IT feeds is the most efficient way to catch up with that.
While Twitter can tell you a post is there and is awesome for near live interaction there is no way it can compete with RSS as a knowledge aggregator. Tweets just disappear too fast. Facebook only tells you what others are interested in via a crappy web interface!
Looking for an Alternative?
Although I had imported my feeds into Google Reader — primarily for travel access — on the PC I use an off-line reader. The demise of Google’s Reader doesn’t really worry me but I am looking for an alternative to RSS Bandit.
It began as a .net demo project from some Microsoft Employees and was then made open source. Development has stalled — last updated in 2009 — so I’m on the search for a good Windows 7 (work), 8 (home) and Phone RSS reader. Ironic that I was seriously considering converting to full on use of Google Reader!
I was hoping to find a good Windows 8 Modern reader but the few that I’ve tried haven’t impressed. Many, like iPhone/iPad, apps rely on Google Reader API and just present the info it provides or they just collapse in a heap when my 1200+ feeds are imported.
Feedburner lives… on death-watch?
I was somewhat surprised this Google ‘spring clean’ spared the Feedburner feed service. I’m glad as my own TypePad feeds use FeedBurner for a few reasons:
- It detached the feed from the blog platform. The prime reason for that is you could change platforms without requiring readers to re-subscribe. Ironic I am still very happy with TypePad and FeedBurner is the service in doubt!
- It added useful extras like serving the post headlines and excerpts which are seen on my index page.
- It also provided feed use stats, of dubious value recently, which TypePad does not report at all.
FeedBurner was a great company, innovative and responsive to user feedback. Then Google took over and I thought it would develop further. How wrong that was! Apart from porting the reporting to their ‘Google Analytics look’ Google have pretty much ignored it since acquisition.
I regard FeedBurner as being on death-watch as Google have killed their FeedBurner blog, Twitter account and Adsense for [RSS] Feeds. Seems like RSS is dead for Google. FeedBurner has also become unreliable with quite frequent ‘0 report days’ Google don’t seem to give a damn about fixing.
Reader goes, readers gone?
One thing the demise of Reader may reveal is the worth of Google’s feed statistics. According to Feedburner the vast majority of my 9000’ish feed ‘subscriptions’ are from Google Feedfetcher.
I have often wondered about the validity of this number, even tested it. When Reader goes will they disappear too?
* Google Feedfetcher: Feedfetcher is how Google grabs RSS or Atom feeds when users subscribe to them in Google Reader or iGoogle.
