A reminder to those who may have let time slip away--Google Reader is being shut down Monday, July 1, 2013. What's a good replacement that will allow you to easily import your subscriptions from Google Reader before July 1st? I am trying out both the Digg and Feedly readers--and they both seem fine, so I recommend them to you for your consideration:
http://digg.com/reader
http://cloud.feedly.com/
For those who just want to download their data from Google Reader (which you must do before July 1st): here are the instructions.
Lifehacker has a full review of alternative readers here. Good reading and goodbye Google Reader!
Tweet
Follow @johnmpoole
Showing posts with label Google Reader. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Google Reader. Show all posts
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Self-Inflicted Damage Of The Google Brand
Who's going to use Google's Evernote (Google Keep) now that everyone knows that Google will kill even successful products like Google Reader?
Finale for Now on Google's Self-Inflicted Trust Problem - James Fallows - The Atlantic: "I am about as pro-Google a person as you're going to find in the media. I've had friends at all levels of the company since its founding, and still do now. I've admired what Google has done in China; I live my info-life within the Gmail / Google Drive universe; and I am predisposed to take Google's side in most controversies, whether against Microsoft or the French. Including when it comes to its influence on the battered journalistic business model it has helped to overturn! But even I think it has done something brand-damaging. . . ."
Wonder if Larry Page or anyone on the senior "Google team" has ever heard of "branding," much less understands its importance. I doubt it after seeing the mess Google has made of Android and Google's idiotic announcement of Google Keep right after killing Google Reader. Steve Jobs (a guy who really knew the importance of branding--he kept a near bankrupt Apple alive by launching the "think different" campaign) must be laughing his a__ off!
The Google guys may be good engineers, but they are tone deaf when it comes to equally important things like user experience and loyalty. You break a user's trust, and that user is less likely to try your next product or service. A product or service is everything a user experiences. With Google Reader, the users' trust has been broken by Google. The subliminal message: never, ever, count on Google providing any service for very long (even one as loved, and successful, as Google Reader.)
If the Google Reader decision is indicative of the Google strategy going forward, they are in for a decline in fortunes. Once users' trust is destroyed, users go elsewhere. Google has lost control of Android--Taiwanese manufacturers are bundling Android (stripped of all Google services) into smartphone hardware packages assembled in China, and sold globally. Desktop search is moving to other venues--Siri, Amazon search, etc. Someday in the future, Google will look back and wonder, "why did we kill Google Reader?"
Tweet Follow @johnmpoole
Finale for Now on Google's Self-Inflicted Trust Problem - James Fallows - The Atlantic: "I am about as pro-Google a person as you're going to find in the media. I've had friends at all levels of the company since its founding, and still do now. I've admired what Google has done in China; I live my info-life within the Gmail / Google Drive universe; and I am predisposed to take Google's side in most controversies, whether against Microsoft or the French. Including when it comes to its influence on the battered journalistic business model it has helped to overturn! But even I think it has done something brand-damaging. . . ."
Wonder if Larry Page or anyone on the senior "Google team" has ever heard of "branding," much less understands its importance. I doubt it after seeing the mess Google has made of Android and Google's idiotic announcement of Google Keep right after killing Google Reader. Steve Jobs (a guy who really knew the importance of branding--he kept a near bankrupt Apple alive by launching the "think different" campaign) must be laughing his a__ off!
The Google guys may be good engineers, but they are tone deaf when it comes to equally important things like user experience and loyalty. You break a user's trust, and that user is less likely to try your next product or service. A product or service is everything a user experiences. With Google Reader, the users' trust has been broken by Google. The subliminal message: never, ever, count on Google providing any service for very long (even one as loved, and successful, as Google Reader.)
If the Google Reader decision is indicative of the Google strategy going forward, they are in for a decline in fortunes. Once users' trust is destroyed, users go elsewhere. Google has lost control of Android--Taiwanese manufacturers are bundling Android (stripped of all Google services) into smartphone hardware packages assembled in China, and sold globally. Desktop search is moving to other venues--Siri, Amazon search, etc. Someday in the future, Google will look back and wonder, "why did we kill Google Reader?"
Tweet Follow @johnmpoole
Friday, March 22, 2013
Google's First Really Dumb Decision
All companies make stupid mistakes. Google just made its first really, really dumb decision--killing Google Reader. There are many reasons this decision is short-sighted (other than alienating users, content creators, etc.), and here's just one--
Google Reader Still Drives Far More Traffic Than Google+: "According to data from the BuzzFeed Network, a set of tracked partner sites that collectively have over 300 million users, Google Reader is still a significant source of traffic for news — and a much larger one than Google+."
That's right--a driver of internet traffic, with all that data, etc. Most internet sites would kill to get their hands on the users and data available across the internet via Google Reader. But Google is shutting it down. What stupidity!
Even smart guys sometimes make really, really stupid mistakes. This is Google's first.
Tweet Follow @johnmpoole
Google Reader Still Drives Far More Traffic Than Google+: "According to data from the BuzzFeed Network, a set of tracked partner sites that collectively have over 300 million users, Google Reader is still a significant source of traffic for news — and a much larger one than Google+."
That's right--a driver of internet traffic, with all that data, etc. Most internet sites would kill to get their hands on the users and data available across the internet via Google Reader. But Google is shutting it down. What stupidity!
Even smart guys sometimes make really, really stupid mistakes. This is Google's first.
Tweet Follow @johnmpoole
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)