Reminder: Google Reader Goes Dark Today
All good things eventually come to an end, and for the thousands of people who used Google Reader, the search giant's RSS reader was indeed a good thing. You'll notice we're referring to Google Reader in the past tense. We're jumping the gun by a few hours, but by the end of the day, Google will pull the plug on its RSS reader, rendering the service officially dead.
Google warned of this day around three and a half months ago, giving Google Reader users plenty of time to find an alternative RSS service. Some users flocked to Feedly following Google's announcement, while over 150,000 online protesters signed a petition encouraging Google to reverse course and give its RSS reader a stay of execution. As of this writing, the petition is over 46,000 signatures short of its goal.
Not everyone is upset about Google Reader's demise. Dave Winer, co-creator of the original RSS spec, said he "never used the damn thing" in the first place, adding that he "didn't trust the idea of a big company like Google's interests being so aligned with mine that I could trust them to get all my news."
Regardless of how people feel, Google Reader's shuttering represents an opportunity for competing services to up their game and attract more users. Even AOL is getting in on the action by releasing an RSS reader of its own.
Are you a displaced Google Reader user? If so, have you found an alternative?
Google warned of this day around three and a half months ago, giving Google Reader users plenty of time to find an alternative RSS service. Some users flocked to Feedly following Google's announcement, while over 150,000 online protesters signed a petition encouraging Google to reverse course and give its RSS reader a stay of execution. As of this writing, the petition is over 46,000 signatures short of its goal.
Not everyone is upset about Google Reader's demise. Dave Winer, co-creator of the original RSS spec, said he "never used the damn thing" in the first place, adding that he "didn't trust the idea of a big company like Google's interests being so aligned with mine that I could trust them to get all my news."
Regardless of how people feel, Google Reader's shuttering represents an opportunity for competing services to up their game and attract more users. Even AOL is getting in on the action by releasing an RSS reader of its own.
Are you a displaced Google Reader user? If so, have you found an alternative?
