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> While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader. Back when Google was an underd

by nirui 4y ago

> While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader. Back when Google was an underdog company in the market, they were desperately capturing the market share, and their strategy was basically throwing a lot of things at the wall and see what sticks (in a calculated way). I'd say Google Reader was one if the lucky coincidence they hit. Sadly, after Google stabilized at it's market position, they no longer need these loss leader products, so they just removed it. A completely normal business decision, if you give it a look today. I often use this as a reminder when I found myself developed a fan-altitude towards a company, so I can convert my altitude to "Nice product, I hope it make money" then proceed to use their product with an understanding that maybe one day I'll jump to another ship.

qbasic_forever 4y ago
No the real reason Google Reader was shut down was because it was competing with Google Plus, their failed social network/Facebook compete. Vic Gundotra was the head of Google Plus product and was not shy or hiding that Google Reader had to go--at the time Reader had its own social features like the ability to subscribe to your friend's starred RSS feeds/stories and share them, comment on them, etc. It was purely a calculated move to kill Reader so people had to use Google Plus for sharing stories and commenting on them. This would goose the number of active Google Plus users and ensure Vic hit his targets for getting fat bonus payments. This absolutely was not a case of "the product was finished and did all it needed to do"... people were pissed at what was happening and didn't want to move over to Google Plus (which completely lacked the core feature of reading RSS feeds, despite Gundotra claiming they would eventually implement it (shocker! they never did)). The story of Google Reader's demise is purely a power grab by a mad exec/product leader that ran his product to failure and eventually was forced out of the company under allegations of being a sex pest to employees. Google Reader died for no good reason other than getting that piece of garbage some bonuses.
- 6510 4y ago
  Do they still have the code? What would it take?
- saurik 4y ago
  Google is extremely bad at increasing the scope of existing projects. Like, rather than kill Google Reader to support Google+, maybe they should have merged Google Reader into Google+ and evolved it as the onramp to convince people that Google+ was awesome. Only, no: the people who work at Google fundamentally don't seem to understand product design, and so they consistently introduce a new unrelated project (or multiple at the same time) and deprecate, kill, and finally delete the old one (which will experience the same fate), often with no transition or migration plan for end users :/.

by nirui 4y ago

qbasic_forever 4y ago

No the real reason Google Reader was shut down was because it was competing with Google Plus, their failed social network/Facebook compete. Vic Gundotra was the head of Google Plus product and was not shy or hiding that Google Reader had to go--at the time Reader had its own social features like the ability to subscribe to your friend's starred RSS feeds/stories and share them, comment on them, etc. It was purely a calculated move to kill Reader so people had to use Google Plus for sharing stories and commenting on them. This would goose the number of active Google Plus users and ensure Vic hit his targets for getting fat bonus payments. This absolutely was not a case of "the product was finished and did all it needed to do"... people were pissed at what was happening and didn't want to move over to Google Plus (which completely lacked the core feature of reading RSS feeds, despite Gundotra claiming they would eventually implement it (shocker! they never did)). The story of Google Reader's demise is purely a power grab by a mad exec/product leader that ran his product to failure and eventually was forced out of the company under allegations of being a sex pest to employees. Google Reader died for no good reason other than getting that piece of garbage some bonuses.

6510 4y ago
Do they still have the code? What would it take?
saurik 4y ago
Google is extremely bad at increasing the scope of existing projects. Like, rather than kill Google Reader to support Google+, maybe they should have merged Google Reader into Google+ and evolved it as the onramp to convince people that Google+ was awesome. Only, no: the people who work at Google fundamentally don't seem to understand product design, and so they consistently introduce a new unrelated project (or multiple at the same time) and deprecate, kill, and finally delete the old one (which will experience the same fate), often with no transition or migration plan for end users :/.