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I feel like the only reason we hear so much about Google Reader is because the main users were either journalists or bloggers, which creates an extremely dispro

I feel like the only reason we hear so much about Google Reader is because the main users were either journalists or bloggers, which creates an extremely disproportionate noise / (former) user ratio.

rtpg 13y ago
that's exactly what happened. The biggest reason this was a bad mood for Google was because the entire tech journalist brain trust was so dependent on it. They spat on the people who can be the most fervent defenders of the company.
- olalonde 13y ago
  Moral of the story: they should never have built Google Reader in the first place?
  - elorant 13y ago
    The moral of the story is that you should never rely on a service which is given for free.
    - diminish 13y ago
      do you also mean Google Search?
      - jffry 13y ago
        If it doesn't cost money, then you're the product
        diminish 13y ago
        paying money doesn't mean you aren't the product.
        jffry 13y ago
        also true
        irickt 13y ago
        For example, newspapers and magazines.
      - elorant 13y ago
        Yes, I also mean Google Search. As a user I don't rely on it, there are alternatives. If they shut it down tomorrow I'd be sad because it's a stellar product but I will survive without it. As a business owner I pay them through adwords so I don't expect them to shut it down any time soon. The problem with GReader is that the industry never bothered to produce a quality alternative until now.
    - streptomycin 13y ago
      Yes, because services that cost money never disappear.
    - devb 13y ago
      And with the shutdown of Reader went any chance of me investing any of my time in Google+, or Docs, or Hangout, or any service they offer in the future.
    - workbench 13y ago
      Didn't Reader kill off all the pay services…
  - flyinRyan 13y ago
    Obviously not. If they had left the space alone it would be fine now. Instead they "googled" it: came in and undercut everyone else, got a monopoly or near-monopoly position in the space and just canned the product. It would be like Walmart coming to your 2k-person town, opening a super center and then closing it down a few weeks after the last mom-n-pop owners shut down and moved away.
    - olalonde 13y ago
      That's a fair point. That being said, a feed reader seems like a relatively simple product to build and there seems to be a lot of alternatives out there. What made Google Reader so special? (I'm asking genuinely, I have never used it before)
      - rahoulb 13y ago
        The main thing for me wasn't the simple feed-reader aspect of it; it was the syncing. I could use my choice of clients on different platforms and as Reader was effectively a monopoly, all the clients would sync with it, allowing me to view the same list of feeds whereever I was - and more importantly, keep those lists up to date with new feeds, and which articles I had read.
      - onli 13y ago
        First of all, it seemed to be the only choice left apart from two self-hosted services (tt-rss and selfoss/rsslounge). But it was also a good reader, it didn't cost anything, as a google product it seemed future proof, feed update was fast and the design simple and nice enough. Before its last update, it also had nice share-features.
      - omaranto 13y ago
        If it were simple, I wouldn't have had such a hard time replacing it. Google Reader did two things for me (1) correctly display the content of the RSS feeds I care about, (2) sync, so I could read from my home and work computers, and from my tablet without loosing my place. I read math blogs that use some WordPress plugin that generates images for formulas from LaTeX source and very few feed readers render the formulas at all (I also read several programming blogs and a small number of feed readers remove code blocks from the posts). In the end I gave up on sync, found an Android app that displays posts correctly and use that now.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - mtts 13y ago
    Moral of the story: before you shut down a service, run it by the PR department first.
wslh 13y ago
What is proportionate? I think it is the way the news and the web in general works. Wikipedia has extremely disproportionate pages about notorious things (that are not noise, obviously). I am happy that journalists can amplify the voice of Google Reader users like me instead of talking about Justin Bieber.
snorkel 13y ago
You are 900% correct. Having worked directly in the feed reader space, and trying to make money at it, and I can testify that the segment of online audience who even know what a feed is are a small club of tech news junkies and assorted wonks who all seem to know each other. They are a passionate crowd, but many companies have tried and failed at bringing that passion for feed reading to the mainstream, probably because most people don't read tech blogs all day long.
- darylfritz 13y ago
  I feel the problem was more in the lack of curation and innovation of feed-delivery. FlipBoard seems to be successful without appearing to be a feed-reader on the surface. Google just missed the opportunity to make the feed reader more appealing to the average user.
ianstallings 13y ago
Honestly I didn't even know people were still using RSS readers let alone would get their pitch forks out when Google Reader went down. Between news emails, news aggregates like HN, and my friends sharing links I really don't have any problem filling the gaps and gave up on RSS readers a few years ago. Am I in a small group?
- bchar 13y ago
  I don't know about your circle of friends, but my link-sharing friends get their material from a RSS reader.
  - ianstallings 13y ago
    I'm sure some of mine do too..
smrtinsert 13y ago
That doesn't change the point of the article.
the_watcher 13y ago
Anecdotal evidence alert, but I am neither, and I never imagined the shuttering of a web app could actually make me feel sadness (as sad as that is). Google Reader was the most important part of the internet for me.
- atc 13y ago
  Anecdotal evidence of what, exactly?
lnanek2 13y ago
A lot of startups and product companies would kill to have a product used by countless journalists. I've written apps for a couple designed entirely to get more press. You hear more noise, but those users were more valuable influencers for the company to maintain relationships with as well making them more worth keeping.

I feel like the only reason we hear so much about Google Reader is because the main users were either journalists or bloggers, which creates an extremely disproportionate noise / (former) user ratio.

rtpg 13y ago

that's exactly what happened. The biggest reason this was a bad mood for Google was because the entire tech journalist brain trust was so dependent on it. They spat on the people who can be the most fervent defenders of the company.

olalonde 13y ago
Moral of the story: they should never have built Google Reader in the first place?
- elorant 13y ago
  The moral of the story is that you should never rely on a service which is given for free.
  - diminish 13y ago
    do you also mean Google Search?
    - jffry 13y ago
      If it doesn't cost money, then you're the product
      - diminish 13y ago
        paying money doesn't mean you aren't the product.
        jffry 13y ago
        also true
        irickt 13y ago
        For example, newspapers and magazines.
    - elorant 13y ago
      Yes, I also mean Google Search. As a user I don't rely on it, there are alternatives. If they shut it down tomorrow I'd be sad because it's a stellar product but I will survive without it. As a business owner I pay them through adwords so I don't expect them to shut it down any time soon. The problem with GReader is that the industry never bothered to produce a quality alternative until now.
  - streptomycin 13y ago
    Yes, because services that cost money never disappear.
  - devb 13y ago
    And with the shutdown of Reader went any chance of me investing any of my time in Google+, or Docs, or Hangout, or any service they offer in the future.
  - workbench 13y ago
    Didn't Reader kill off all the pay services…
- flyinRyan 13y ago
  Obviously not. If they had left the space alone it would be fine now. Instead they "googled" it: came in and undercut everyone else, got a monopoly or near-monopoly position in the space and just canned the product. It would be like Walmart coming to your 2k-person town, opening a super center and then closing it down a few weeks after the last mom-n-pop owners shut down and moved away.
  - olalonde 13y ago
    That's a fair point. That being said, a feed reader seems like a relatively simple product to build and there seems to be a lot of alternatives out there. What made Google Reader so special? (I'm asking genuinely, I have never used it before)
    - rahoulb 13y ago
      The main thing for me wasn't the simple feed-reader aspect of it; it was the syncing. I could use my choice of clients on different platforms and as Reader was effectively a monopoly, all the clients would sync with it, allowing me to view the same list of feeds whereever I was - and more importantly, keep those lists up to date with new feeds, and which articles I had read.
    - onli 13y ago
      First of all, it seemed to be the only choice left apart from two self-hosted services (tt-rss and selfoss/rsslounge). But it was also a good reader, it didn't cost anything, as a google product it seemed future proof, feed update was fast and the design simple and nice enough. Before its last update, it also had nice share-features.
    - omaranto 13y ago
      If it were simple, I wouldn't have had such a hard time replacing it. Google Reader did two things for me (1) correctly display the content of the RSS feeds I care about, (2) sync, so I could read from my home and work computers, and from my tablet without loosing my place. I read math blogs that use some WordPress plugin that generates images for formulas from LaTeX source and very few feed readers render the formulas at all (I also read several programming blogs and a small number of feed readers remove code blocks from the posts). In the end I gave up on sync, found an Android app that displays posts correctly and use that now.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- mtts 13y ago
  Moral of the story: before you shut down a service, run it by the PR department first.

wslh 13y ago

What is proportionate? I think it is the way the news and the web in general works. Wikipedia has extremely disproportionate pages about notorious things (that are not noise, obviously). I am happy that journalists can amplify the voice of Google Reader users like me instead of talking about Justin Bieber.

snorkel 13y ago

You are 900% correct. Having worked directly in the feed reader space, and trying to make money at it, and I can testify that the segment of online audience who even know what a feed is are a small club of tech news junkies and assorted wonks who all seem to know each other. They are a passionate crowd, but many companies have tried and failed at bringing that passion for feed reading to the mainstream, probably because most people don't read tech blogs all day long.

darylfritz 13y ago
I feel the problem was more in the lack of curation and innovation of feed-delivery. FlipBoard seems to be successful without appearing to be a feed-reader on the surface. Google just missed the opportunity to make the feed reader more appealing to the average user.

ianstallings 13y ago

Honestly I didn't even know people were still using RSS readers let alone would get their pitch forks out when Google Reader went down. Between news emails, news aggregates like HN, and my friends sharing links I really don't have any problem filling the gaps and gave up on RSS readers a few years ago. Am I in a small group?

bchar 13y ago
I don't know about your circle of friends, but my link-sharing friends get their material from a RSS reader.
- ianstallings 13y ago
  I'm sure some of mine do too..

smrtinsert 13y ago

That doesn't change the point of the article.

the_watcher 13y ago

Anecdotal evidence alert, but I am neither, and I never imagined the shuttering of a web app could actually make me feel sadness (as sad as that is). Google Reader was the most important part of the internet for me.

atc 13y ago
Anecdotal evidence of what, exactly?

lnanek2 13y ago

A lot of startups and product companies would kill to have a product used by countless journalists. I've written apps for a couple designed entirely to get more press. You hear more noise, but those users were more valuable influencers for the company to maintain relationships with as well making them more worth keeping.