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Google decided that the way to launch a new social network was to piss off the nucleus of it, namely, the users of its existing social apps. By canceling Reader
by samatman 3y ago
Google decided that the way to launch a new social network was to piss off the nucleus of it, namely, the users of its existing social apps. By canceling Reader, and going on a long, obnoxious push to unify gmail and YouTube accounts, two things literally no one wanted.
If they'd been clever enough to make Google+ an extension of those things, it might have gone somewhere.
- marssaxman 3y agoThey additionally alienated many potential early adopters with the "real names" policy...
- cesarb 3y agoThat "real names" policy is the reason I have always been careful to never open YouTube while logged into any Google account: the understanding I gathered from the noise back then was that, if you ever logged into YouTube or Google+, and then Google for some reason decided that your name was not your real name, you could permanently lose access to more important things like Google Talk or Gmail.
- samatman 3y agoAh that fiasco! I'd memory-holed it. That was the final mistake, killing Reader was the first. I haven't forgiven them for it and I never will.
- BlueTemplar 3y agoThe sad thing is that Reader was already a successful social network on top of a RSS reader. But not successful enough for Google I guess...
- reaperman 3y agoI'll never forgive Google for killing Reader. I truly believe the internet would be very different today if Reader had stuck around.