Gutted. I'm a huge advocate of RSS - and this doesn't bode well for folk like me. I have hundreds of great feeds that I turn to - it's like my own news wonderful daily news channel or all the best things in the world without the clutter or trash of TV (generally speaking) - I truly believe that syndicated content is still the best way to digest the multitude of content on-line.

I can only hope that someone really benefits from this and creates or improves a better or equal to reader (is currently the best). Or maybe it will open my eyes to app's I've not heard of that share across devices...

Maybe Jim can buy it from Google and keep it alive? ;-)

Good riddance!

A poorly conceived use of RSS.

I wrote to Google soon after it was launched, hoping they'd take notice.

I received a snooty reply from the Bod in charge of fiddling with it, claiming the points I'd complained about "were features".

QED

We've been blocking it's bot for years as well, and advising our RSS users to get a decent feed reader.

Are there any decent alternatives?

...build your own with "Simple PIE".

[simplepie.org...]

Bummer. I use Reader daily. They've been moving it to the background over the past few years (it used to be in the top level Google navigation but was moved to the "More" section a while back), so I'm not really surprised that usage has declined. I wish that instead of just retiring it, they would release it as an open source project so someone else might take it up.

While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined.

I'd argue with that, it sure feels like more people were taking my RSS content to pass as their own.

I disabled RSS feeds from my site months ago, it got that bad. I wonder what will happen to Feedburner, I like their email list function and am happy to use it over paid alternatives. I've been with Feedburner since before Google owned it, is it next?

It's as if they noticed the google hate wagon was slowing and found a way to keep it rolling in an abusive relationship kind of way.

No idea why they would to this but I agree with Sgt_Kickaxe I don't think its because of falling usage and I'm not even sure usage is falling.

I've been testing Feedily for Firefox/IOS and I like it. There's a lot of customisation options that come pretty close to the best of Google reader + some additional benefits. Best I've tested so far...

i think limbo meant Feedly

Yep ;)

I found this today: Digg is building a reader.
[blog.digg.com...]

There seems to be some hope around.

What's wrong with Thunderbird? Handles mail AND RSS. Or you could use Firefox for RSS.

I don't know but after reading complains about closing GR I found that many people in certain countries like it because it's not as easy to block, so they can access lots of info resources on the web.

Someone paying attention with the right product at the right time is about to earn a bunch.

The upside here is anyone that cam provide a transitional service that has some way to ease people onto their service painless and can make money doing it could clean up on the sheer numbers that Google calls declining usage.

Many parasites live of the scraps of larger beasts even in the cyberspace ecosystem, AdSense being a prime example :)

Top free alternatives to soon-to-be shuttered Google Reader
With Google Reader set to shut down this summer, many other apps have come into the spotlight as possible alternatives to the popular RSS service.

So here are some of the top free services we recommend as users prepare for Google Reader going dark July 1.

[latimes.com...]

There's some speculation that the reason behind shutting it down has to do with Google+.

I moved off Google Reader last year, so it's no skin off mine. A lot of people sure are unhappy about it though (so much for keeping users happy)

to me Google Reader is a "web browser" in the same way ie/chrome/etc are.. how you organise and interact with your feeds is very telling about your overall web behaviour.

maybe next they will sunset gmail?

Some of the wording unearthed within the JavaScript hints at Google Play News being a replacement, of sorts, for the Google Reeder RSS service, which was controversially axed during the week.

Google to enter digital newspaper business with Google Play News? [techradar.com]

I thought they said July 1, 2013. I can't find it right now.

i see it in the googleblog linked in the OP, as quoted.

phranque - Sorry, my post wasn't clearer. Yes, the googleblog said July 1, 2013. What I was saying, though, at the time I posted, was that I couldn't find Google Reader in my "More" menu in Gmail, nor could I find it in the "Even more" submenu. Maybe they were doing a dress rehearsal for shutdown. It was very convincing. ;)

It is there tonight, with a dialogue box stating the July 1 date of shutdown... and requiring me to click OK to that to get in. The dialogue also offered a link to alternatives, which I assume is thorough (didn't have time to check it tonight, but I will).

This article worth checking out....

The lessons of Google Reader's death...
Nieman Journalism Lab
March 15, 2013 - This Week in Review
[niemanlab.org...]

The article highlights viewpoints from many of the players, links to lists of free services stepping up to the plate, and concludes with some cautionary comments suggesting that the technologies we rely upon, on the desktop or in the cloud, aren't really ours....

Slate's Farhad Manjoo said this should be a wakeup call to stop relying on free services. Said blogger Dave Winer: "Next time, please pay a fair price for the services you depend on."

I've observed that even technologies we pay for aren't necessarily going to continue, or to degrade gracefully. The cloud is just one more layer that's not in our control, and it's more volatile than most.

Google Kills Reader, Helps RSS
On Monday, Google will turn off Google Reader, a product that allowed users to read RSS feeds,

[forbes.com...]

I'm a big fan of RSS, and hope more sites make feeds available.

IMO, pushing out an XML file with headlines of your (5) latest posts/articles/pages/whatever, with a couple hundred character excerpt is one of the best ways to get qualified traffic for free.

Some argue people just read the free feed and never visit the site (and view/click ads). So what? They never would have visited anyway if that's the case.


...for those who wonder how RSS can be used -- even this topic has it's own RSS feed: [webmasterworld.com...]