RSS is a way for the audience to access fresh web content without having to visit the original websites. Well, Google is an ad company — it makes money selling

RSS is a way for the audience to access fresh web content without having to visit the original websites. Well, Google is an ad company — it makes money selling ads on those websites. RSS was a threat to Google's core business similar to ad blocking plugins. Google Reader's role was to contain the fad of ad-free news reading, it also provided rich data about what people read. As soon as they saw the use of RSS fading, they could finally ditch the Reader, hoping it would also further marginalize RSS. They still can mine the Feedburner data, they'll still know what people read. Did Google also have a role in making RSS unpopular? Would RSS grow bigger if Google didn't come up with the Reader? This would be, ekhmm… a far-fetched hypothesis…