Google Shutting Down Reader, Voice For BlackBerry, And Cloud Connect Services

Google Shutting Down Reader, Voice For BlackBerry, And Cloud Connect Services

Thursday, March 14, 2013 - by Ray Willington
Are you a frequent user of Google Reader? Tough luck! Google has had an ongoing "spring cleaning" for a few years now, shutting down peripheral services and items that it simply can't find time to focus on as a more mature, publicly-traded company. For the most part, the shut-downs have only angered a minority, but it seems the decision to sunset Reader has awaken a hornet's nest. While RSS as a whole isn't quite as popular as it once was, Reader was one of the more popular ways to view 'em. And, perhaps more importantly, a lot of services used Reader in some way or another.


In addition to Reader, which is scheduled to be killed in July, there's also Google Building Maker, Cloud Connect, and Google Voice for BlackBerry -- all of those are facing their own graves soon. Also, Google is halting sales and updates for Snapseed Desktop for Mac and Windows, but Android / iOS support will soldier on.

So, in the latest round of Google kills, which one hurts you the most?
Via: Google | News Archive | Tags: Google, Software, reader, service
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By turtle on Mar 14, 2013

Curious. If not RSS, what do people use? Websites like Reddit?

I browse the morning feeds after work and when I wake up. I truly see it as a contemporary tailored newspaper by authors I enjoy, complete with headlines and a short sample. I haven't found a more efficient way, as of yet, to filter what I know I am interested in or what I never knew I might find interesting by people I know have similar interests or unique style.

Out of the few different RSS readers I've used over the past (jeez...decade?), I stuck with Reader after realizing it existed. I think the layout is great, and it doesn't require an account I don't already have and use on a regular basis. It's probably obvious, but I was brought to this article by Reader. It'd be poetic if it wasn't so damn tragic. I think Google is making a big mistake.

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By 4L1G8R on Mar 18, 2013

turtle, I just use Twitter.....works better for me than the RSS feeds ever did.

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By RWilliams on Mar 14, 2013

I've been using Reader for like six years =/

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