![]() Today, news and blog content is relatively open and parseable because of RSS and Google Reader's leverage, but all the recent social information about ourselves is locked behind protocols unique to each website and app. Google Reader is a symbol of a time just before the Yet-Another Rise Of The Wall Gardens when the web looked to be on the verge of more semantic and open rather than proprietary where information was becoming easily accessible and machine-readable instead of more locked up and fragmented. But maybe where the puck went really isn't so great. Google Reader, the product, seems to be a textbook example of how an incumbent failed to head where the puck was going. Despite building on top of the exact same web feed technologies as Reader, they created better browsing and recommendation experiences across the web, mobile, and the newborn content-havens of tablets. They have impeccable design, strong brands, and are mainstream "things" in a way Google Reader never was (maybe partly due to Apple's high visibility endorsements). Then came Flipboard, Prismatic, and all the other content discovery platforms that became smarter than just Google Reader in lipstick. ![]() And they will live on after Reader's final breath. Apps like Reeder and Press took the charge on nailing the user experience of reading feeds on-the-go they grew, evolved, and established brands independent of and stronger than Google Reader. It was a desktop web product living in an age where we consume our content leaning around at bus stops or looking busy at awkward parties. It had a half-decade head start on Flipboard and Prismatic.īut it became a dinosaur. Google Reader came out in 2005, before the iPhone, Android, and the ubiquity of smartphones. But the loss of Google Reader, the symbol, should be grieved for and contemplated with many furrowed eyebrows. Google Reader, the product, died and should serve as a lesson in missed opportunities.
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