Google To Shut Down Reader

  • Service to shut down on July 1, 2013
  • Overlaps with Google Plus
  • Decline in usage

Google announced today that it will shut down its Google Reader platform by July 1, 2013.

  • Service to shut down on July 1, 2013
  • Overlaps with Google Plus
  • Decline in usage

Google announced today that it will shut down its Google Reader platform by July 1, 2013.

Google Reader is a content application and platform provided by Google that aggregates content served by web feeds. It was created in 2005 by Blogger engineer Chris Wetherell and was later launched as a Google Labs project.

For nearly eight years, Google Reader was among the most popular ways to tracking large amounts of web content and aggregating them in one place. It also was Google’s first try in social networking as the service’s sharing features became the foundations of friendships and relationships.

However, as Google has announced its intent to streamline its services and deploying its resources more carefully to more beneficial projects for the company and cutting off those that failed to meet the company’s expectations, Google Reader was one of those who got axed.

The rise of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and even Google Plus have pushed the reader to the point of obsolescence and redundancy as most of the Reader’s features have been incorporated into these sites.

The announcement has made quite an impact on a number of Google Reader users, soliciting negative comments and disappointment over the company’s decision to discontinue the platform. But nonetheless, it seems that the death of Google Reader is imminent and all that we can do is adapt to the change just like any other defunct service offered before by Google.

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