Powering Down Google Reader. A second spring of cleaning. Google Reader to shut down with other services as part of second 'spring cleaning' Google, don't turn off Reader. Signed, The Internet. Google Reader to shut down July 1st. Google has announced yet another spring cleaning of its various services, and this time around, the company is giving the axe to its Google Reader RSS aggregator.
The service, which originally launched back in 2005, will be officially put out to pasture on July 1st, 2013. Reader has gone through a number of iterations, but it had not been significantly updated in a long time. The last time that Google updated the product, it built in integration for the Google+ social network and removed Reader's own native sharing service, causing a bit of a backlash with die hard users. Google is offering users a way to export their Reader content, including lists of users that they follow and starred and liked articles.
In addition to killing off Reader, beginning next week Google is ending support for the Google Voice app for BlackBerry smartphones, instead pointing users toward the HTML5 webapp. Lack of usage and a 'focus on fewer products' are to blame. Google announces Reader’s imminent demise. Google has announced that Google Reader, its RSS aggregation system, will be turned off on July 1st. Citing years of declining usage, Reader is one of several victims of the advertising giant's periodic "spring cleaning. " The Reader RSS platform had a popular Web front-end, and was also used to provide behind-the-scenes support for a wide range of RSS clients. Current users of Reader will be able to export their list of feeds up until the cut-off date using Google's Takeout facility. Google's last periodic clean, its "winter clean," saw the company announce the end of support for Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) for non-paying customers.
After considerable outcry and negotiation with Microsoft, Google postponed the switch-off by six months; it'll now run until July 31st. That Google was willing to change its plans over EAS might give Reader users a slight glimmer of hope that enough pressure could make the company change its mind. GoogleReaderpocalypse. For Real This Time. Don’t be evil? If that’s the unofficial Google motto, then the company has failed to deliver today. Among the products Google just announced it plans to sunset (read: kill off), beloved feed-reading service Google Reader is now on the chopping block. “*$%#” wrote at least one TechCrunch staffer upon hearing the news. “What will feed my Reeder app,?” These reactions will be echoed among a legion of Google Reader fans, and loudly, as the news spreads.
Google Reader never made it as a mainstream product, which is why Google is giving the ax. We got a taste of what life without Reader was like in February, when the service became unusable for nearly two days. I guess that’s good news for those early stage startups though. Google has been gradually destroying Google Reader for over a year now. There were even movements like the “we are the (1000+)” #occupyGoogleReader meme, from Google Reader’s original creators, no less! After all, who uses it but bloggers anyway, right? You were loved. Google Closes The Book On Google Reader On July 1, Seven Other Products Also Get The Chop. Google just revealed plans to shut down eight of its services as part of what it’s calling an ongoing spring cleaning effort. Some of them are pretty arcane, but among TechCrunch writers, anyway, we’re pretty bummed to see that Google Reader will be shut down on July 1.
“We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites,” SVP of Technical Infrastructure Urs Hölzle writes in the blog post. “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.” As a result, we can probably expect another round of “RSS is dead” posts. Google’s declining interest in RSS was already pretty obvious given last fall’s shutdown of AdSense for feeds. Latest Coverage. Google shreds Reader in new round of 'spring cleaning' High performance access to file storage Update Google is killing off Reader, its web-based RSS reading service, as part of its latest round of culling little-used or unprofitable products. A spring clean, if you will.
The service will disappear on July 1st, 2013. Google’s reason for the termination, revealed in a blog post, follows: “There are two simple reasons for this: usage of Google Reader has declined, and as a company we’re pouring all of our energy into fewer products. Software Engineer Alan Green penned the post and added that “We know Reader has a devoted following who will be very sad to see it go. Happily, users can extract their RSS subscriptions and use them in another reader using Google Takeout. Other products and services set for the axe, as detailed here, include: The GUI Builder and five UiApp widgets in its AppScript service, “to focus efforts on Html Service” as of September 16th. Update. Google kills Google Reader, says it will go offline on July 1, 2013. Google is doing a second round of spring cleaning — its euphemism for small projects it finds unworthy of its time and efforts — and is killing off a whole bunch of projects, the biggest of them being Google Reader.
In a blog post Wednesday afternoon, Urs Hölzle, Google’s senior vice president of Technical Infrastructure, announced the pending closure: Everyone has a device, sometimes multiple devices. It’s been a long time since we have had this rate of change—it probably hasn’t happened since the birth of personal computing 40 years ago. To make the most of these opportunities, we need to focus—otherwise we spread ourselves too thin and lack impact. So today we’re announcing some more closures, bringing the total to 70 features or services closed since our spring cleaning began in 2011 The other projects that are being euthanized include Google Voice for Blackberry, Calendar API, Snapseed for desktop, Search API for shopping and others. A Feedly spokesperson tells us: