Agreed.

I'm sure there were many reasons it died, but my theory is that Google strategically wanted to kill it because the User was in control of the data-sources and the algorithm. Google wanted people to migrate to Google+, News, etc. where they control what you see.

This is what Facebook and Twitter did. Their feeds used to be a simple chrono sort of sources you determined, but then they slowly took control.

In my mind, all these companies have shifted from being Platforms to being Publishers. While they aren't writing the content, they are actively choosing what content you see and don't see, i.e. being the Editor.

I can't figure out what I've read up to on Twitter anymore since it shuffles tweets around and inserts random "your follower also follows this person" tweets which I didn't ask for

If you turn off the "show the best tweets first" option in your content preferences you get a chronological timeline back. (They made this change a month or two ago)

That's it! Thank you

Have you tried using Tweetdeck? It puts that kind of stuff in a separate column which you can show or hide as you wish. The main column is chronological.

The fact that such a service is necessary is a bad sign for Twitter's UX.

This is by far the best explanation I've read. Thx for making my day.

It's a chilling distillation of the fact that making us happy is tangential to underlying corporate motives.

> the User was in control of the data-sources

I think this might be right, but this could be because it was an thus an awful interface for anyone who wasn't somewhat along the HN-user spectrum of technical nous.

Amen to the above. There are alternatives... But GR was by far the best.

It ticks me off to this day. I can’t imagine it being terribly difficult to maintain, particularly with Google’s limitless resources. They burned so much good will with their developer base just to save a few bucks.

It would have been amazing if instead of having Google Plus be an entirely separate thing, they had added Google Plus's sharing and discussion features onto Google Reader and grown from that as a base. Something like that could very well still be a thriving product today.

They did, it was called Google Buzz.

They did it before Buzz, it was the bookmarklet and RSS item sharing and discussion features built into Google Reader. Even had rudimentary friend-of-friend-only visibility for shared articles and discussions.

I'm gonna say Reader was like a dysfunctional relationship for me, once they shut it down and I had to move on (currently using newsblur.com) I saw how good an actively devoped RSS app could be

Honestly, ever since Reader was killed I have way more free time on my hands. Maybe it was my poor time management but it was a time hole for me, I'm actually glad that, at the time, nothing as good was around to make me stick on the endless RSS feeds I was subscribed.

I have the opposite issue: I love newsblur so much, because I can fast forward through RSS feeds and read them quickly, which means I don't have to keep going to the sites.

Think about how much collective time that would be multiplied amongst the millions of users. Huge!

So maybe Google did the world a favour by binning Reader.

I used Feedly for a while, but I pretty much abandoned my RSS fix after the demise of Reader.

BazQux is an excellent replacement for Google Reader. One of the rare products I'm happy to pay for consistently: https://bazqux.com .

I recommend http://inoreader.com/ - I'm not affiliated with it in any way, however I am a very happy user of it.

Seconded. With Google reader, I never really was a fan of their web interface and preferred the Feeddemon desktop client. Sadly it was discontinued after the death of GReader. Switched to Inoreader since then and I must say the web interace is much more to my liking.

Google Reader without a doubt. In my opinion, the demise of RSS started the day Google Reader was killed.

> demise of RSS started the day Google Reader was killed

Maybe killing Reader was a means to an ends.

Or when Aaron Schwartz died

Google Reader for sure. I use Feedly now, but it lacks the social aspect GR had.

There is a "halfbacked" function on the mobile phone (ios only?) version which is "Explore". It seems to be curated by editors. Would be interesting to have something based on your consumption or subscriptions.

I use Feedly now but miss Google Reader. It was a great way to follow the Internet chronologically and could have been developed much further from that point of view.

Nowadays you are supposed follow the Internet randomly, based on whatever you happen to see in social media by chance or curated by algorithms. It’s not a good way to get a balanced view.

Amen. Post reader I gave up on RSS because Feedly wasn't it for me. I even tried the one as part of Thunderbird.

I have been using https://elytra.app recently. Pretty happy so far (iOS only at the moment, but the developer is working on a web version)

I was going to say Google Reader too but have just reconsidered. I do miss it, and the idea that this was a popular way to consume news / content etc. However I can still use RSS on feedly, inoreader and a bunch of self-hosted alternatives. By moving away from Google I am also escaping their all-seeing eye, albeit to some minor extent. In the time since Google retired Reader I have begun to see them as a negative presence in the world. I have moved from Gmail and Google Calendar to Fastmail, self-host my contacts and will move on from Android as soon as Ubuntu Touch or another alternative become fully featured enough.

https://shop.puri.sm/shop/librem-5/ next year

Yes this. When I started listening to podcasts years ago, Reader was my primary tool. When Google announced the pending shutdown, I screenshot every part of the app so that I could rebuild it from scratch if needed one day.

What did Google Reader do that something like Newsblur doesn't? I transitioned from Reader to Newsblur before Reader was killed and have been happy ever since.

Feedly works for me

I miss Google Reader too. Now I use TheOldReader (no affiliation) which tries to be like Google Reader. It does the job for me.

add https://redef.com https://www.aldaily.com/ and https://www.mediagazer.com/river if you want a little more variety.

I just started using Feedly which is pretty neat.

I've was hit by this hard too. Tiny RSS works well as a self-hosted solution.

Came here to say the same. Although, Feedly has taken over well.

check out theoldreader.com. They suck at marketing but it's essentially a clone of Google Reader. Really surprised it is not as well known as the other guys.

Try NewsBlur