Google Reader: Gone for Good After July 1, 2013


Google keeps surprising people. That latest came as it announced it was shutting down Google Reader, the RSS feed reader application, on July 1, 2013.

Google Reader closing - cat appalledIn a statement on the Official Google Blog titled “A Second Spring of Cleaning” the search behemoth wrote, “We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites. While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined.”

The company went on to note, “Users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with Google Takeout over the course of the next four months.”

A number of other Google services are being shut down.  Most, however, seem either developer-focused or appealing to  niche interests.

For most people, losing Google Reader will be the biggest blow of all the products being shut down. John Resig tweeted that 97% of his feed hits come from Google Reader.  Here at Small Business Trends we have a similar experience.  Out of the 120,000 subscribers to our RSS feed, 90% are from Google Reader.

Of course, we’ve seen much slower growth in RSS readership, as our Twitter following has grown these past 3 years.  People today get a lot of their news updates through social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and other social sites.

I’ve always found Google Reader hard to use.  It has an inflexible user interface with limited customization features.  But it really depends on how you use a feedreader.  Some people actually read the full text of their content in an RSS feedreader. Others use a feedreader to be alerted of new news and merely look at the headlines, jumping over to the originating site to read the content.

If you are looking for an alternative to Google Reader, there are a number to consider, including start pages such as NetVibes, which is very customizable, and Feedly (which already offers instructions for transitioning from Google Reader).

Another one that we use internally for some of our processes is My Yahoo.  My Yahoo is streamlined and makes it easy to scan headlines – it’s good if headlines are mainly what you are interested in. It’s not the best solution if you wish to read the full text of feeds in the reader itself.

MarketingLand also has a healthy list of alternatives to Google Reader.

Cat image via Shutterstock


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Anita Campbell Anita Campbell is the Founder, CEO and Publisher of Small Business Trends and has been following trends in small businesses since 2003. She is the owner of BizSugar, a social media site for small businesses.

18 Reactions
  1. Really, Anita?

    I have a feeling that the Google executive team is doing more than “Spring cleaning.”

    I think that they are slowly moving towards, “not free.”

    I have Google Reader installed, but I don’t ever use it.

    Never liked it all that much, anyway.

    Maybe Yahoo! can find a way to jump-in. (With something really cool in a reader)

    The Franchise King®

    • Yes, Joel, it’s true. Of course now everyone is predicting that FeedBurner will be the next Google service to go, but I’m not so sure.

      My Yahoo makes a pretty good headline scanning tool for RSS feeds. We use it to keep up on breaking small biz news here at Small Business Trends. Maybe Yahoo will see this as an opportunity to improve that tool. It’s looking pretty dated — although we don’t care about the looks, just that it functions quickly and efficiently for our purposes.

      – Anita

    • You make a very good point. Google is starting to squeeze harder and harder to beat analysts expectations and keep the stock price up (remember the 9% dive they took after failing to meet estimates on Q4?)

      While I guess it was inevitable, it’s still sad 🙁

  2. I highly recommend Feedly. It’s multi-platform and will pull all your feeds in that you had in G-Reader.

    I never was crazy about Reader outside of the PC, but Feedly has a nice graphic interface and keeps you from getting caught up with feed chaos.

    • Thanks, Tiffany, for the recommendation. I see that Feedly has a lot of fans on the Web.

      – Anita

  3. I am definitely looking into Feedly, but also into curation platforms like Scoop.it – possibly kill two birds with one stone?

    Thanks for the heads up, Anita!

  4. I know A LOT of people disappointed by the news, especially how unpopular Google says the service is. It can be a very valuable tool.

  5. Aww, that sucks. I actually liked Google reader and I’m a bit saddened that it’ll be no more. Thanks for your list. I see some good alternatives here I’ll be giving a try.

    Ti

  6. That’s bad news or may be I use it a lot.

  7. For most people, losing Google Reader will be the biggest blow of all the products being shut down. John Resig tweeted that 97% of his feed hits come from Google Reader. Here at Small Business Trends we have a similar experience. Out of the 120,000 subscribers to our RSS feed, 90% are from Google Reader.

  8. Some people actually read the full text of their content in an RSS feedreader.