Google Reader Shutting Down July 1, 2013

[m00min]

I made the mistake of reading the news that Google was shutting down Reader right before going to bed last night, not conducive to winding down. I've been using it ever since switching from Bloglines in 2006.

I've switched to Fever (feedafever.com) today, as it works with Reeder for iPhone. If you've got a jailbroken iPad the iPhone version of Reeder runs in fullscreen quite well, which does in a pinch until/if the new version of Reeder for iPad is released.

Basically this worked for me as I'm effectively swapping out the back-end stuff whilst keeping the reading experience I'm used to. I'm finding that if I ignore the "Hot" and "Sparks" lists it works just like Google Reader from Reeder's point of view.

Fever is PHP + MySQL based so you will need a server or hosting to run it off, but it's totally worth it not to have to deal with cloud based services simply going away.

[daffy4u]

Here's a link to a list of feed readers posted in a comment on Feedly.

http://www.rss-readers.org/list-of-rs-feed-reader/

[Graham]

Originally Posted by toddos

The one example you provided was a poor example. Find me an example where change happened with only an online petition and some outraged blogs/tweets and no actual action taken.

In 2010 the BBC tried to shut down one of their stations, the excellent BBC 6 Music. A massive online petition campaign got this decision reversed. They can work, but they really have to take off and get traction with the media, so that the associated negative publicity becomes a threat.

Graham

[Skibble]

Originally Posted by toddos

It syncs between the two because it's using Google Reader as the backend. Yes, they have a transition plan. But that transition plan is just a reimplementation of Reader's public API, and who knows how well it's been tested?

I don't see why it "just" being a re-implementation matters. What works, works. I don't anticipate many problems when they launch their own system (called Normandy), since they have said up front it is a clone of the open source material from Google. We know that works.

Originally Posted by toddos

But really, my biggest gripe is that Feedly is not a website. It requires a browser add-on, which means it doesn't work in IE (not so important for desktop, but super important for mobile/tablet devices like Surface and Windows Phone), Opera, or pretty much anything that's not Chrome/Firefox/Safari. For mobile devices, an app is required but they only support Android and iOS. If you have a Windows Phone or Blackberry, forget about it.

True, it doesn't do much good for those who use the devices/systems you listed. But as a Chrome and Android user, it's perfect for me.

I wish you the best of luck in finding a replacement for yourself!

[toddos]

Originally Posted by Skibble

I don't see why it "just" being a re-implementation matters. What works, works. I don't anticipate many problems when they launch their own system (called Normandy), since they have said up front it is a clone of the open source material from Google. We know that works.

Google Reader's value is not in its API, but in its storage, caching, etc. And reimplementing an undocumented (the internals, that is), non-standard API isn't exactly trivial. For an extreme case, look at something like Wine, which is "just" a reimplementation of most of Microsoft's APIs (like win32) for unixes. 20 years later, there are still things that it doesn't implement correctly. Granted that's a very extreme case, but the point is that when you don't have a standard that you're writing to, you don't really know what each function does (are there side effects? Bugs you have to emulate? etc). Google Reader isn't as complex as Windows, but it's also not exactly simple.

I'm not sure what "open source" stuff you're referring to, as Google Reader isn't open source. They're reimplemening the (sort of) documented interface using their own code behind it.

I seriously hope Feedly can pull it off (and provide a web-based-without-extensions platform for viewing), but it's good to stay skeptical.

[Skibble]

Originally Posted by toddos

I'm not sure what "open source" stuff you're referring to, as Google Reader isn't open source. They're reimplemening the (sort of) documented interface using their own code behind it.

I realized my mistake and was coming back to correct it. You are absolutely right. I was thinking of something else entirely.

You bring up some good points about re-implementation; I get what you mean now. I'll cross my fingers that all goes as planned; if it does, Feedly will be a very nice replacement for me.

[kyteflyer]

Its all a bit of a pain. They bought feedburner and killed that off...

[GlenBarrington]

Originally Posted by Ninjalawyer

I rarely use the web interface, but I do use apps like Newsify to get my Google Reader feeds on my phone. It'll be interesting to see what 3rd party apps that rely on Google Reader transition to.



Sure, I pay $12 a year for a password manager, so $10 for this would be reasonable. If only that option were on the table. Given Google's business model (free to end users and supported by ads), I don't hold out much hope for a paid version. Although a paid version would need to offer more and better features than it does now.

I'm not a news reader user, at least not knowingly, but could something like this be a candidate for conversion to open source?

[toddos]

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

I'm not a news reader user, at least not knowingly, but could something like this be a candidate for conversion to open source?

As I mentioned elsewhere, Google Reader's real assets are in its backend, which while they could be open sourced, they probably wouldn't be all that useful (built on various Google-proprietary technologies, surely). Not that Google would open source it, anyway.

That said, there are open source readers like Tiny Tiny RSS and NewsBlur (both linked elsewhere in this thread). NewsBlur looks more developed, refined, and interesting, but it's also nearly impossible to install on your own right now (it has a lot of hard-coded dependencies on Amazon S3, for example, which costs money and is overkill for an instance hosting a handful of users). Maybe, hopefully, this will spur development of NewsBlur to be more easily installable. Tiny Tiny RSS looks much easier to install, but also less feature-rich.

Given the prevalence of CherryPy-based python web apps in various circles (if you're a couchpotato, you're probably aware of what they are ...), I'm somewhat surprised that nobody's whipped up a simple RSS reader using python yet. Something in between the stark simplicity of TTR and the overbuild massiveness of NewsBlur.

[GlenBarrington]

Originally Posted by toddos

The one example you provided was a poor example. Find me an example where change happened with only an online petition and some outraged blogs/tweets and no actual action taken.

And Google already is giving developers time to migrate. They've got a little over 3 months, which is years in internet time.

Well, if you go to various tech sites, the wailing is in full force. If most of those people are half as knowledgeable and involved in tech development as they claim, they are wasting valuable time!

[AndrewH]

Feedly will be an acceptable replacement for me, once I get used to it. The only thing I really hate about it is the lack of a share to G+ function. Share to Instapaper, EverNote, LinkedIn, Delicious...ok. Pocket? Never heard of it, whatever. No G+, Twitter, or F%^&book? Odd.

Google provided a year advance notice when they shut down Google Wave, and a year for iGoogle... I wonder why the rush for the demise of Google Reader.

I also wonder why they don't just integrate Google Reader's functionality into Google Plus. It seems (to me) a logical extension of G+.

On a similar vein, I predict Blogger will be next. It's rather pointless with G+.

[toddos]

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

Well, if you go to various tech sites, the wailing is in full force. If most of those people are half as knowledgeable and involved in tech development as they claim, they are wasting valuable time!

And that's the dirty secret of the readers of tech sites. 99% of the readers either can't or won't start a replacement. 0.9% may actually start, but they'll be dead on github or sourceforge in a month. The remaining 0.1% might actually do something, but those are the people who probably already are (the previously mentioned projects).

I'm a perfect case in point. I'm pissed that Reader is dying. I'm a professional software developer by trade. I'm not likely to spin off my own project to replace it, because between work, family, and other stuff I want to do there's no time to build a Reader replacement.

[Ninjalawyer]

Originally Posted by toddos

The one example you provided was a poor example. Find me an example where change happened with only an online petition and some outraged blogs/tweets and no actual action taken.

And Google already is giving developers time to migrate. They've got a little over 3 months, which is years in internet time.

Geez, talk about moving the goal posts...

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by toddos

Find me an example where change happened with only an online petition and some outraged blogs/tweets and no actual action taken.

Why should I do that for you when you can Google it yourself? No matter what example I provide, you are not going to accept it and will keep adding new qualifiers because you've made up your mind that petitions don't work.

You know what, I'm okay with that because it's *your* opinion and we don't have to agree.

[holymadness]

Originally Posted by toddos

And that's the dirty secret of the readers of tech sites. 99% of the readers either can't or won't start a replacement. 0.9% may actually start, but they'll be dead on github or sourceforge in a month. The remaining 0.1% might actually do something, but those are the people who probably already are (the previously mentioned projects).

I'm a perfect case in point. I'm pissed that Reader is dying. I'm a professional software developer by trade. I'm not likely to spin off my own project to replace it, because between work, family, and other stuff I want to do there's no time to build a Reader replacement.

Digg has announced it's launching a new version of Reader. I read somewhere else that a developer of some renown had been working on one for years and will reveal it at WWDC. Reeder has stated on Twitter that they'll find a way to continue providing service.

In my opinion, the hardest hit will be creators who rely on RSS to communicate with their readers, or who sell advertisement space in their RSS feeds. This move will fragment the reading base and cause a lot of people to simply abandon the protocol in favour of Twitter or other services like Zite and Flipboard.

The absolute worst case scenario for average users would be the emergence of a format war between new competitors. The beauty of Google Reader was that it worked with every app and OS and that data was easily migrated from one to the other.