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Google Reader's shutdown made it realize that google didn't understand communities and platforms. OK, you want to push Google+? Isn't google+ supposed to be a

Google Reader's shutdown made it realize that google didn't understand communities and platforms. OK, you want to push Google+? Isn't google+ supposed to be a platform (and not simply an application). Let google reader be an application on top of the Google+ platform. i.e. facebook is valuable because people share things on it. Why would you kill an app that is causing people to share things with each other. Leverage that user base. Reader should have simply been one app built on top of the Google+ platform. Yes, this would involve rewriting it to some extent, but better to do things that maintain your user base, than do things that give people reason to leave. Google has repeated this error over and over again since then, especially with their chat/messaging strategies. Don't give people reasons to jump ship. If you force them to migrate to something new, they can just as easily migrate away from you.

ilikepi 4y ago
> OK, you want to push Google+? Isn't google+ supposed to be a platform (and not simply an application). Let google reader be an application on top of the Google+ platform. They actually did start to integrate them. Google Reader had native sharing functionality for several years. Then in 2011 they suddenly removed it and replaced[1] it with sharing through Google+. My small network of Reader-using friends were split over wanting to join Google+, so that mostly killed our practice of regularly sharing links with each other. [1]: https://googlereader.blogspot.com/2011/10/new-in-reader-fresh-design-and-google.html https://googlereader.blogspot.com/2011/10/new-in-reader-fres...
- dontlaugh 4y ago
  That's what killed Reader sharing & comments, yes. They should have done the opposite, growing Google+ out of Reader: keep the Reader sharing, but also automatically share to Google+.
- compsciphd 4y ago
  sort of "Integrating with Google+ also helps us streamline Reader overall. So starting today we'll be turning off friending, following, shared items and comments in favor of similar Google+ functionality." i.e. reader could be used to add content to google+ but not to use google+ I could share a link on google+ but couldn't see any of the interactions unless I went to google+. If google+ was meant to be a platform, I should have been able to see the comments or other peoples shared items from within the google reader app. It should just have been one way to interact with google+ amongst many.

ilikepi 4y ago

> OK, you want to push Google+? Isn't google+ supposed to be a platform (and not simply an application). Let google reader be an application on top of the Google+ platform. They actually did start to integrate them. Google Reader had native sharing functionality for several years. Then in 2011 they suddenly removed it and replaced[1] it with sharing through Google+. My small network of Reader-using friends were split over wanting to join Google+, so that mostly killed our practice of regularly sharing links with each other. [1]: https://googlereader.blogspot.com/2011/10/new-in-reader-fresh-design-and-google.html https://googlereader.blogspot.com/2011/10/new-in-reader-fres...

dontlaugh 4y ago
That's what killed Reader sharing & comments, yes. They should have done the opposite, growing Google+ out of Reader: keep the Reader sharing, but also automatically share to Google+.
compsciphd 4y ago
sort of "Integrating with Google+ also helps us streamline Reader overall. So starting today we'll be turning off friending, following, shared items and comments in favor of similar Google+ functionality." i.e. reader could be used to add content to google+ but not to use google+ I could share a link on google+ but couldn't see any of the interactions unless I went to google+. If google+ was meant to be a platform, I should have been able to see the comments or other peoples shared items from within the google reader app. It should just have been one way to interact with google+ amongst many.