The Internet went into shock earlier this year when Google revealed that it was killing its popular RSS aggregator Google Reader. At the time, the company offered no explanation as to why it was shutting the service down. With three weeks to go until the official closing of the doors on July 1st, the Mountain View company has finally come forward and given us its logic behind this much-hated decision.
While speaking to Wired, Google News and Social Products Senior Director Richard Gringras explained that because of the way information consumption has changed over the last couple of years, Google feels that Reader is an antiquated way of reading news. The company is most likely referring to things like Twitter, Facebook, and its own Google+, all of which have become nearly instant sources of breaking news from a variety of sources.
“As a culture we have moved into a realm where the consumption of news is a near-constant process,” Gringras explained. “Users with smartphones and tablets are consuming news in bits and bites throughout the course of the day – replacing the old standard behaviors of news consumption over breakfast along with a leisurely read at the end of the day.”
When Google announced the shuttering of Google Reader, many people who used the service instantly freaked out, because at the time, there weren’t any truly good alternatives to replace it. Thankfully, however, the company announced the closure far enough ahead of time that companies like Reeder were able to plan ahead and start to support more news aggregation services aside from Reader.
Back in March, we took a look at some of the decent alternatives to Google Reader. My personal favorite is Feedly, which has clients available for the PC, Mac, Android, and iOS. The mobile interface is beautiful and sort of like a mix of the web Google reader interface and Flipboard, but best of all, the look is customizable, so if you don’t like it, you can change it. There are also clients such as SharpReader, Blog Navigator, Feed Wrangler, and much more. Be sure to check out our full post for all of the alternatives!
Do you buy Google’s excuse for closing Reader? Let us know down in the comments!
Source: Wired