6 ms·

Google Inbox was so good. I was honestly shocked that they got rid of what felt like true innovation in the email space (at the time).

websterisk 6y ago
And any hands for Google Reader? I don't think any other tool has had that level of impact on my content consumption, prior or since. It was everything it needed to be and not anything more. RIP.
- discordance 6y ago
  I don’t know if it would still work well these days, but when Google Reader left I genuinely felt less information-abled
  - Hasu 6y ago
    I never used Google Reader, but did use other RSS, and I stopped years ago - not because RSS doesn't still work great, it does. But because so much of the content I used to consume with it is gone now. I used to follow a few dozen blogs that got updated regularly, and had RSS feeds. Now almost all those blogs are dead, migrated to Substack or Twitter, or post so infrequently that it's not worth a subscription. A decade ago, the web browser felt like an endless source of amazing content, and an RSS feed was a great way to keep track of a lot of it at once. Today, I feel like there's still great content, but it's in Twitter feeds and newsletters, and my browser is for accessing webapps and storefronts. Maybe I'm looking at the wrong content or just don't know where to go to find the good stuff anymore, but somehow the end of Google Reader was prophetic, and whether that was a self-fulfilling prophecy or not is up to each of us to decide.
    - nxtbl 6y ago
      You can follow twitter, facebook, vkontakte, newsletters, youtube etc. with a RSS reader. The page you're interested in doesn't offer a feed? Try the integrated web feeds from your reader or another source. https://www.inoreader.com/blog/ https://www.inoreader.com/blog/
- sliken 6y ago
  I miss it, kinda annoyed by feedly, but not quite enough to find or host my own RSS aggregator.
- astrange 6y ago
  Do people know that other RSS readers exist and always have? I feel like they don’t. I’ve always used NetNewsWire and it’s never let me down.
  - mattkevan 6y ago
    Reeder on Mac and iOS is good, been using it for years. You used to need a third party service like Feedly to sync across devices but the latest version has iCloud syncing which is pretty handy.
- coldtea 6y ago
  Well, compared to native RSS readers Google Reader was crap. Why do people rememeber it fondly? Was it the fact that it was web based, or was it the only/first RSS reader people have used?
  - fomine3 6y ago
    Web-based is big feature who read articles in original website rather than reader itself.
- ddoolin 6y ago
  I stopped reading all the feeds I had after they killed Reader. I couldn't get back into it after having used it for years.
- nxtbl 6y ago
  First I felt anger about the coming closure. Then I went thru and tried all the competitors, new and old. Quickly a few rose over what GR ever was and of them I settled with Inoreader - been a happy, paying customer ever since. GR was holding down the evolution of feed readers by keeping theirs free. That was what, 5 million users not paying anybody for the service? When it was gone, things started moving forward again, fast. So actually, it's good that they closed GR.

websterisk 6y ago

And any hands for Google Reader? I don't think any other tool has had that level of impact on my content consumption, prior or since. It was everything it needed to be and not anything more. RIP.

discordance 6y ago
I don’t know if it would still work well these days, but when Google Reader left I genuinely felt less information-abled
- Hasu 6y ago
  I never used Google Reader, but did use other RSS, and I stopped years ago - not because RSS doesn't still work great, it does. But because so much of the content I used to consume with it is gone now. I used to follow a few dozen blogs that got updated regularly, and had RSS feeds. Now almost all those blogs are dead, migrated to Substack or Twitter, or post so infrequently that it's not worth a subscription. A decade ago, the web browser felt like an endless source of amazing content, and an RSS feed was a great way to keep track of a lot of it at once. Today, I feel like there's still great content, but it's in Twitter feeds and newsletters, and my browser is for accessing webapps and storefronts. Maybe I'm looking at the wrong content or just don't know where to go to find the good stuff anymore, but somehow the end of Google Reader was prophetic, and whether that was a self-fulfilling prophecy or not is up to each of us to decide.
  - nxtbl 6y ago
    You can follow twitter, facebook, vkontakte, newsletters, youtube etc. with a RSS reader. The page you're interested in doesn't offer a feed? Try the integrated web feeds from your reader or another source. https://www.inoreader.com/blog/ https://www.inoreader.com/blog/
sliken 6y ago
I miss it, kinda annoyed by feedly, but not quite enough to find or host my own RSS aggregator.
astrange 6y ago
Do people know that other RSS readers exist and always have? I feel like they don’t. I’ve always used NetNewsWire and it’s never let me down.
- mattkevan 6y ago
  Reeder on Mac and iOS is good, been using it for years. You used to need a third party service like Feedly to sync across devices but the latest version has iCloud syncing which is pretty handy.
coldtea 6y ago
Well, compared to native RSS readers Google Reader was crap. Why do people rememeber it fondly? Was it the fact that it was web based, or was it the only/first RSS reader people have used?
- fomine3 6y ago
  Web-based is big feature who read articles in original website rather than reader itself.
ddoolin 6y ago
I stopped reading all the feeds I had after they killed Reader. I couldn't get back into it after having used it for years.
nxtbl 6y ago
First I felt anger about the coming closure. Then I went thru and tried all the competitors, new and old. Quickly a few rose over what GR ever was and of them I settled with Inoreader - been a happy, paying customer ever since. GR was holding down the evolution of feed readers by keeping theirs free. That was what, 5 million users not paying anybody for the service? When it was gone, things started moving forward again, fast. So actually, it's good that they closed GR.