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I think they're going to shut down Blogger next. It's a neglected platform at best, and it too encroaches on some partial functionality that could be offered b

by Udo 14y ago

I think they're going to shut down Blogger next. It's a neglected platform at best, and it too encroaches on some partial functionality that could be offered by G+. Picasa is in the process of being absorbed completely into G+. We're in the middle of a massive consolidation. They're closing down and walling off everything they can. When the smoke clears Google will have transformed from an open standards company into exactly the same walled garden everybody else is offering.

mark_l_watson 14y ago
+1 This is what I have been concerned about also. I rely a lot on Blogger, Gmail, and (now) G+ photo albums. I like the way Blogger is easily mapped to a sub domain (blog.markwatson.com) and I don't have to run blogging software myself. GMail has been central in my workflow and I like the convenience of taking pictures on my droid phone and have all pictures auto uploaded to G+. However, I have been thinking of starting an open source project that would be a one JAR deploy that would support personal photo album with easy sharing, blogging, live messaging (ironically I would like to use Apache Wave), and perhaps email (but probably not). I believe that since most technical people have their own servers and many of us are tired of walled gardens that this might garner a few users besides myself.
- mark_l_watson 14y ago
  Also: for many years I have forwarded email from my own domain to GMail. I am going to stop doing that even though I really like their anti spam service. It probably makes more sense to just use my gmail account for access to customer's shared google docs, etc. in other words, still use useful Google services but stop relying too much on them. I also now prefer paid services. Evernote and Dropbox, for examples, are clearly motivated to support me because I am a customer not a product.
  - alexqgb 14y ago
    I set up my own domain (hosted by InMotion, who have fantastically good customer service) and run my email through that. My initial reservation was that I'd be relying on spam filters that were inferior to Google's. In practice, it hasn't been a problem at all. Obviously, this is anecdotal, but the light-years ahead advantage in spam filtering that Google one had seems to have eroded to the point where it's no longer enough to keep me on gmail. I still have my gmail account, but it's no longer primary.
cowkingdeluxe 14y ago
This is one of my concerns as well. I use blogger for clients as well. They've shut down or are shutting down a few things I've used a decent amount, iGoogle, Reader, occasionally Code Search, and now their XMPP usage is in doubt (https://www.fsf.org/blogs/sysadmin/google-backslides-on-federated-instant-messaging-on-purpose https://www.fsf.org/blogs/sysadmin/google-backslides-on-fede...) which I use for OTR instant messaging. I really liked being able to go explore Google Labs as well. While losing any of the above isn't crippling, I certainly didn't expect to lose them, and it will make me have additional questions about using other Google products. I guess it magnifies the difference between web and desktop apps.
Flenser 14y ago
Someone should create a site with estimates of how long it will be before google products are shut down based on when they last had a new feature added or were blogged about, in a similar (although opposite) vein to the predictions on http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/ http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/
shrikant 14y ago
I think FeedBurner will go before Blogger. They've already been neutering it for a while now, the site is still on design that pre-dates the G+ visual overhaul, and Google is clearly actively looking to snub RSS now.

by Udo 14y ago

mark_l_watson 14y ago

+1 This is what I have been concerned about also. I rely a lot on Blogger, Gmail, and (now) G+ photo albums. I like the way Blogger is easily mapped to a sub domain (blog.markwatson.com) and I don't have to run blogging software myself. GMail has been central in my workflow and I like the convenience of taking pictures on my droid phone and have all pictures auto uploaded to G+. However, I have been thinking of starting an open source project that would be a one JAR deploy that would support personal photo album with easy sharing, blogging, live messaging (ironically I would like to use Apache Wave), and perhaps email (but probably not). I believe that since most technical people have their own servers and many of us are tired of walled gardens that this might garner a few users besides myself.

mark_l_watson 14y ago
Also: for many years I have forwarded email from my own domain to GMail. I am going to stop doing that even though I really like their anti spam service. It probably makes more sense to just use my gmail account for access to customer's shared google docs, etc. in other words, still use useful Google services but stop relying too much on them. I also now prefer paid services. Evernote and Dropbox, for examples, are clearly motivated to support me because I am a customer not a product.
- alexqgb 14y ago
  I set up my own domain (hosted by InMotion, who have fantastically good customer service) and run my email through that. My initial reservation was that I'd be relying on spam filters that were inferior to Google's. In practice, it hasn't been a problem at all. Obviously, this is anecdotal, but the light-years ahead advantage in spam filtering that Google one had seems to have eroded to the point where it's no longer enough to keep me on gmail. I still have my gmail account, but it's no longer primary.

cowkingdeluxe 14y ago

This is one of my concerns as well. I use blogger for clients as well. They've shut down or are shutting down a few things I've used a decent amount, iGoogle, Reader, occasionally Code Search, and now their XMPP usage is in doubt (https://www.fsf.org/blogs/sysadmin/google-backslides-on-federated-instant-messaging-on-purpose https://www.fsf.org/blogs/sysadmin/google-backslides-on-fede...) which I use for OTR instant messaging. I really liked being able to go explore Google Labs as well. While losing any of the above isn't crippling, I certainly didn't expect to lose them, and it will make me have additional questions about using other Google products. I guess it magnifies the difference between web and desktop apps.

Flenser 14y ago

Someone should create a site with estimates of how long it will be before google products are shut down based on when they last had a new feature added or were blogged about, in a similar (although opposite) vein to the predictions on http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/ http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/

shrikant 14y ago

I think FeedBurner will go before Blogger. They've already been neutering it for a while now, the site is still on design that pre-dates the G+ visual overhaul, and Google is clearly actively looking to snub RSS now.