Google has made a second big announcement today via the official Google Blog, amongst a smattering of minor products such as Google Building Maker and Google Cloud Connect they’ve announced that Google Reader will be ‘retired’ on the 1st of July.
The full statement on the demise of just about everyones favourite source of RSS feeds is as follows :
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. Users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with Google Takeout over the course of the next four months.
The Google Reader Blog writes that they are aware that Google Reader has a devoted following who will be very sad to see it go and that they too are saddened by the news.
A number of Android apps will be affected by this closure, but we’ll have to wait a while for them to digest this news and respond.
So, it’s time to start investigating alternatives, ensuring that you have downloaded your feeds prior to the closing down of the service, first. Alternatives to RSS such as using social media such as Twitter, Google+ or Facebook as a replacement have been suggested and services like Pulse and Currents exist, however these can be hit and miss. Whatever happens in the future, Google Reader will definitely be missed.
Let everyone know, what’s your alternative to Google Reader?
Before using Google Reader (pre-2005!), I used a self-hosted Tiny Tiny RSS. I’ve just reinstalled it and just as good as I remember.
There is also an Android app but its 7days trialware, unless you want to hack the code, remove the offending items and recompile into an APK (the code is hosted on github).But for $2 I’ll probably just pay up 😉
I’d love to see feedly et. al support it but I doubt that’ll happen.
I only have a few feeds but I am still sad…I guess I could feel this coming with all the bugs and layout consistencies within the app for such a long time. True though…it was reader that pointed me here to become aware of its finality. Even with a new reader I need something that will track what I have read between all my devices! Saddest Google news in ages…and maybe that is a good thing.
What a travesty. I didn’t turn a hair when they cut the likes of Buzz since very few people used them but a LOT of people use Reader either directly or as a backend for other apps. Are they pushing us to Currents?
Nooooo !! I LOVE Google Reader.
It keeps me up to date with everything I need AND keeps everything synced between my phone and PC.
Google, please reconsider…
This is the second most dissapointing news, after the seeing the samsung s4 teaser on twitter yesterday. wtf man, this week has been sux!
Rather saddened by this. Just trying to import things into NewsBlur now to see what that’s like, but the servers are getting hammered.
I desperately need an alternative.. but it can’t just be app only. It needs to be web and android, and it needs to sync. Google Reader was just so good.. goddamn.
I’m trying out news blur, feedly and the old reader.
All 3 services are getting hammered atm due to the mass of fleeing Reader users..
I’d wish Google would just make it a paid service instead of shutting it down. Social Web services aren’t a great place for actual reading. 🙁
Argh. Google Reader + Pocket is how I run my shit. Devastated.
Seriously not impressed! This is my 2nd most used app (second only to email). Can you please write an article about alternatives?
Feedly has been working on something called Normandy based on the Google Reader API. If you use freely for your Google feeds before the cutoff they will port all your feeds and you don’t need to do anything. I use Press mostly and this is disappointing but at least someone like Feedly is doing something.
What the hell? How do you think I came to find this article – google reader….
This is not good.
Just seems odd to kill the service. Surely it cant cost them that much to keep it open?
I think they are probably going to re-release it or rebrand it. They seem to be merging a lot of their applications these days so maybe thats where its going.
It just seems so odd for them to kill it off.
This is balls.
I need a replacement. I only use it on my Nexus 7 these days, does anyone else have a list of alternatives to try or can recommend anything?
But I use press through Google reader sync? Whyyyyyyyy fucking whyyyy????
noooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!
there really aren’t any good alternatives to google reader unless you like pictures (or more commonly favicons blown up to 256×256) and only 6 words from the article.
A sorry day for people that still actually read.
Am trying BRIEF
Sad panda. 🙁