Today (April Fools Day) we’re reminded how much time and money Google spends on gags. A fraction of that money would have been enough to support Google Reader.
Google Reader (2005-2013) was the RSS service most regular people used to read blogs. But RSS is an open format. At its heart, Google is an ad company, and if you didn’t directly use Google Reader in your browser (if you used an app of your choosing), Google couldn’t throw ads at you and trap you in a Google+ walled garden like Facebook (which Google had an obsession with at the time). So, they killed it.
Private companies can do what they want with their own services. I’m not arguing that. But instead of trying to find a way to make a buck off the service, Google chased the mega bucks they knew Facebook would eventually enjoy. In short, they bet against their users to please potential advertisers. That, I can’t abide.
I work at a Google Competitor and a recent personal example is them putting Pac-Mac inside of their Maps Product. They spend a lot of money being way too edgy while killing off services like Google Reader to seemingly prop up April fools humor.
Like all of my tech friends, we’ve found Reader alternatives. I host my own RSS server and you should too but it was a staple among people who consumed news without any of the web fluff. No javascript, trackers, little adverts, just text & a photo. RSS is the best way to consume news and most people don’t know what it is and I think Google kept awareness pretty high. Killing it off put a stake in the heart of any chances for RSS to go mainstream. Some would argue RSS’s chances of mainstream success sailed long before Reader was sunset but we’ll never know.