Google is killing google reader

Lazybones · March 13, 2013, 10:21:55 PM

http://support.google.com/reader/answer/3028851?hl=en

I use it rather heavily since I can seamlessly read on my browser via PC then switch to Fliboard on my iPhone while keeping my read/unread status all I sync and star interesting suff for later.

This really sucks

They are also killing off CALDAV support so if you use other apps to read your google calendar you will be SOL on that soon as well.

Mr. Analog · March 13, 2013, 11:33:00 PM

Dammit I hate when they do stuff like this...

I STILL miss code search and google wave

My mom is unhappy about iGoogle going away... augh

When Google Labs was shut down you just knew nothing good was going to come of it.

Tom · March 14, 2013, 01:01:39 AM

Yeah I'm not too happy. I use greader fairly heavily on my mobile devices.

This'll probably give me an excuse to work on a properly useful mobile app in my spare time.

Thorin · March 14, 2013, 09:42:55 AM

I wonder if the CalDav thing will affect me? I use Google Calendar for my family calendar, and we all access it from our smartphones. I'm not sure what app our smartphones use internally to read the calendar...

Darren Dirt · March 14, 2013, 11:15:40 AM

Quote from: Mr. Analog on March 13, 2013, 11:33:00 PM
Dammit I hate when they do stuff like this...

I STILL miss code search and google wave

My mom is unhappy about iGoogle going away... augh

When Google Labs was shut down you just knew nothing good was going to come of it.

Damn you, profit-generating corporation!

Mr. Analog · March 14, 2013, 11:18:53 AM

Making grumpy users starts to add cost to that profit.

There have been enough changes to GMail and YouTube to push some users away already. Not a large number, but still a number that if unchecked may grow.

Darren Dirt · March 14, 2013, 11:23:49 AM

Quote from: Mr. Analog on March 14, 2013, 11:18:53 AM
Making grumpy users starts to add cost to that profit.

There have been enough changes to GMail and YouTube to push some users away already. Not a large number, but still a number that if unchecked may grow.

I personally loved all the cool stuff that the genius devs @ Google were able to share with the geekworld via Labs, but it was always a clear "temporary, beta, playground/sandbox" type of thing so the writing was never not on the wall. Sad as these things go by the wayside, sure, but my guess is plenty of those neat ideas got taken to cool places by smart folks who went off and did their own side projects or created startups based on the apps, ideas, or even as a tangential result of that special freedom. But economic times ain't what they used to be, thanks Google for taking as long as you did to kill the non-profit stuff.

Mr. Analog · March 14, 2013, 11:27:47 AM

They used to allocate a day a week to personal projects, but I guess they haven't done that at Google for a while, hence no labs (?)

Lazybones · March 16, 2013, 06:02:42 PM

Hosting your own replacement might be an option

http://tt-rss.org/redmine/projects/tt-rss/wiki

Lazybones · March 17, 2013, 07:38:24 PM

Sounds like owncloud is working on an rss function as well.

Not a direct link but it should be in the recent items.
http://owncloud.org/news/

Lazybones · June 19, 2013, 10:21:45 AM

http://feedly.com/ has rolled our their cloud service. They also removed the browser plugin requirement from their web version so it is now a proper Google Reader alternative.

Darren Dirt · August 23, 2013, 11:07:04 AM

Quote from: Mr. Analog on March 14, 2013, 11:27:47 AM
They used to allocate a day a week to personal projects, but I guess they haven't done that at Google for a while, hence no labs (?)

Confirmed gone: The end of 20 percent time at Google.

Post-2011, it definitely seems to be a less creativity-encouraging work environment. That also might explain why they (presumably) helped (allowed?) the release of the comedy film "The Internship*" -- to make it still look like a fun place to work?

* aka "a two-hour Google commercial disguised as a summer comedy" (TheOnion: "The Internship' Poised To Be Biggest Comedy Of 2005" (and speaking of 2005, blast from the /. past for ya

) )

Mr. Analog · August 23, 2013, 12:15:47 PM

I think all Tech companies hit some kind of peak where they consistently deliver great products, ideas, etc. I feel like Google is on the down slope now.

OT: Google Talk is gone in favour of "Hangouts". It's like they saw the horrors of Facebook and said "me too" and have been shifting all their offerings into this one horrible little box I want no part of.

How many users were tricked into getting a G+ account just for using YouTube?

Lazybones · August 23, 2013, 12:39:30 PM

Quote from: Mr. Analog on August 23, 2013, 12:15:47 PM
I think all Tech companies hit some kind of peak where they consistently deliver great products, ideas, etc. I feel like Google is on the down slope now.

OT: Google Talk is gone in favour of "Hangouts". It's like they saw the horrors of Facebook and said "me too" and have been shifting all their offerings into this one horrible little box I want no part of.

How many users were tricked into getting a G+ account just for using YouTube?

You might find this interesting but other than Gmail, Google is working hard to try and attract Enterprise customers to Google APPS, over Office 360, Google Drive over Dropbox and SkyDrive, Google Talk over Skype / Lync.

I wonder how that is going to shape their products going forward. Their enterprise sales team bugs me from time to time.

Darren Dirt · August 23, 2013, 12:48:50 PM

Quote from: Mr. Analog on August 23, 2013, 12:15:47 PM
It's like they saw [what some popular offering is doing and is successful right now] and said "me too" and have been shifting all their offerings into this...

You'd think Microsoft's recent "we gotta focus on being a device-and-services company" facepalmery would be a cautionary tale for Google... How did ^ that ^ business model work out for them?