4 ms·

I wasn’t reader user, but it seems to me like when advertising self interest took over

dmix 4y ago
Meh the ad business was pretty established well before 2013 when Reader shut down. RSS was declining well before that. Google acquired Doubleclick in 2008 aka what became the real Adwords in its prime. I personally don't expect tech conglomerates to be the ideal solution for niche markets. But I don't see many people providing good arguments why alternatives like Feedly didn't take off if there was really a strong market demand for RSS. And I say that was an uber-fan of RSS back in the day.
- dirtyid 4y ago
  I wonder how feedly is doing, their higher tier plans focusing on enterprise/analysis/teams suggest the demand for rss still among power users / consumers.
  - pinkano 4y ago
    Hi, this is Petr from Feedly, we're doing really well and yes, our focus shifted towards Enterprise - Threat Intelligence and Market Intelligence use cases. Individual users can use our Pro+ plan to access Feedly AI to leverage the power of searching through RSS feeds to get the signals more easily and quickly.
- pvorb 4y ago
  Yeah. I think what really killed RSS was a change in people's behavior. Twitter, Reddit, and other social media sites gained traction as link sharing communities and RSS became less relevant after that. Instead of subscribing to an RSS feed, you could just follow your favorite sites on Twitter, for example.
  - igetspam 4y ago
    Did RSS die??? (I get HN headlines via RSS)
    - JohnFen 4y ago
      Not for me. It's still the primary way that I stay up to date on the web.
      - dmix 4y ago
        A market dying might not mean what you think it means then.
    - pvorb 4y ago
      My usage went downhill, but long after the death of Google Reader. RSS didn't really die, but it never went into mainstream either.
  - scarface74 4y ago
    How is RSS even dead today? I can’t think of a useful site that doesn’t still have an RSS feed - including Reddit.
    - dmix 4y ago
      That's like saying "how is IRC dead today" when Slack/Discord/WhatsApp/Zoom/etc exists or Yahoo style portals when Google exists (yes Yahoo is still a real business) or "how are horses a dead transportation" when cars exist in 1930s America because horses can still walk on roads (aka takes a minimal investment to support). Sure they still work and will continue to work but let's be honest it's a super niche technology and it didn't survive/flourish because it was flawed and fundamentally nerdy option people stopped caring about. Supporting RSS takes the bare minimum of effort. Yet even in 2013 (aka a decade ago) RSS was declining in usage before Reader was killed. I support open platforms but RSS had a super noise-to-signal UX and I personally don't miss it. Google didn't kill RSS, they killed the best RSS product at the time and accelerated a dying protocol that would still be only used by HN's demographic and little else.
      - JohnFen 4y ago
        > I support open platforms but RSS had a super noise-to-signal UX and I personally don't miss it The problem is that nothing arose that adequately replaces it.
        dmix 4y ago
        So make one. There's apparently a lively niche market on HN looking for one (allegedly).
      - scarface74 4y ago
        Why do I care if it’s a “niche” technology as far as other people subscribing if it is still supported by publishers? I can’t think of a single site that I go to and say “I sure wish this site supported RSS” and doesn’t? Using NetNewsWire and subscribing to subreddits with NNW on one half of my iPad and the Reddit app on the other half is still a great experience for instance. I click on the date on NNW and the post opens in the Reddit app. HN also has an RSS feed.
  - dmix 4y ago
    It's much easier to whine about Google than accept trends in consumer behaviour. Programmers get nostalgic about their pet technologies that even the majority of tech-denographic (and often themselves) don't even use when given the option. I don't blame them but they aren't always honest about their favourite niche tech simply being niche technology.
  - lozenge 4y ago
    Attention was shifting from basement blogs and projects to professionally made content for the web. Which would only have one paragraph or a title on the RSS feed and the rest was on the site with ads.
- acdha 4y ago
  I think the bug factor was Facebook. There were places making money selling ads in feeds but they weren’t making within an order of magnitude what Facebook promised. Google+ was a botched reaction to that but I do wonder what Google could have done embracing the open web instead and actually trying to monetize Reader or provide top-notch feed ads. It might not have made Facebook-level rates but it also wouldn’t have soured a generation on their business.

dmix 4y ago

Meh the ad business was pretty established well before 2013 when Reader shut down. RSS was declining well before that. Google acquired Doubleclick in 2008 aka what became the real Adwords in its prime. I personally don't expect tech conglomerates to be the ideal solution for niche markets. But I don't see many people providing good arguments why alternatives like Feedly didn't take off if there was really a strong market demand for RSS. And I say that was an uber-fan of RSS back in the day.

dirtyid 4y ago
I wonder how feedly is doing, their higher tier plans focusing on enterprise/analysis/teams suggest the demand for rss still among power users / consumers.
- pinkano 4y ago
  Hi, this is Petr from Feedly, we're doing really well and yes, our focus shifted towards Enterprise - Threat Intelligence and Market Intelligence use cases. Individual users can use our Pro+ plan to access Feedly AI to leverage the power of searching through RSS feeds to get the signals more easily and quickly.
pvorb 4y ago
Yeah. I think what really killed RSS was a change in people's behavior. Twitter, Reddit, and other social media sites gained traction as link sharing communities and RSS became less relevant after that. Instead of subscribing to an RSS feed, you could just follow your favorite sites on Twitter, for example.
- igetspam 4y ago
  Did RSS die??? (I get HN headlines via RSS)
  - JohnFen 4y ago
    Not for me. It's still the primary way that I stay up to date on the web.
    - dmix 4y ago
      A market dying might not mean what you think it means then.
  - pvorb 4y ago
    My usage went downhill, but long after the death of Google Reader. RSS didn't really die, but it never went into mainstream either.
- scarface74 4y ago
  How is RSS even dead today? I can’t think of a useful site that doesn’t still have an RSS feed - including Reddit.
  - dmix 4y ago
    That's like saying "how is IRC dead today" when Slack/Discord/WhatsApp/Zoom/etc exists or Yahoo style portals when Google exists (yes Yahoo is still a real business) or "how are horses a dead transportation" when cars exist in 1930s America because horses can still walk on roads (aka takes a minimal investment to support). Sure they still work and will continue to work but let's be honest it's a super niche technology and it didn't survive/flourish because it was flawed and fundamentally nerdy option people stopped caring about. Supporting RSS takes the bare minimum of effort. Yet even in 2013 (aka a decade ago) RSS was declining in usage before Reader was killed. I support open platforms but RSS had a super noise-to-signal UX and I personally don't miss it. Google didn't kill RSS, they killed the best RSS product at the time and accelerated a dying protocol that would still be only used by HN's demographic and little else.
    - JohnFen 4y ago
      > I support open platforms but RSS had a super noise-to-signal UX and I personally don't miss it The problem is that nothing arose that adequately replaces it.
      - dmix 4y ago
        So make one. There's apparently a lively niche market on HN looking for one (allegedly).
    - scarface74 4y ago
      Why do I care if it’s a “niche” technology as far as other people subscribing if it is still supported by publishers? I can’t think of a single site that I go to and say “I sure wish this site supported RSS” and doesn’t? Using NetNewsWire and subscribing to subreddits with NNW on one half of my iPad and the Reddit app on the other half is still a great experience for instance. I click on the date on NNW and the post opens in the Reddit app. HN also has an RSS feed.
- dmix 4y ago
  It's much easier to whine about Google than accept trends in consumer behaviour. Programmers get nostalgic about their pet technologies that even the majority of tech-denographic (and often themselves) don't even use when given the option. I don't blame them but they aren't always honest about their favourite niche tech simply being niche technology.
- lozenge 4y ago
  Attention was shifting from basement blogs and projects to professionally made content for the web. Which would only have one paragraph or a title on the RSS feed and the rest was on the site with ads.
acdha 4y ago
I think the bug factor was Facebook. There were places making money selling ads in feeds but they weren’t making within an order of magnitude what Facebook promised. Google+ was a botched reaction to that but I do wonder what Google could have done embracing the open web instead and actually trying to monetize Reader or provide top-notch feed ads. It might not have made Facebook-level rates but it also wouldn’t have soured a generation on their business.