Google has today decided to shut down few of its products and Google Reader is one amongst them. Google Reader which started as a small development project and launched in 2005 has played an important role in the growth of RSS feeds too. With it’s ability to allow users to subscribe to multiple RSS feeds and read them from a single place, it has since enabled to build entire app ecosystems around it.
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. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader. 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.
The news though were not surprising as many of us had anticipated it since it had closed down the Adsense support for feeds and as Google Reader was not generating the revenues expected from it, the sunsetting was bound to happen. So according to Google Blog, July 1 2013 is the date when Google Reader will retire but it gives options for the users to move their feeds, data using Google Takeout over the next few months.
But for various fans who are upset with this step, there are few other alternatives to Google Reader that can be looked into. And this is a crowdsourced list, so if you find an interesting tool, do consider adding to the list down here.
List of Alternatives to Google Reader
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Hope you like this list and looking forward to few more additions.
Meanwhile, what do you think about Google retiring it’s famous Google Reader service, was that a step in the right direction? Personally, I still love my Google Reader.
