At its peak, Google Reader had 30M users but no executive support

Re:At its peak, Google Reader had 30M users but no executive... by vogon_laureate on Wednesday July 12, 2023 @10:40PM (#36704426)

+1 Been a happy user for years.

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Re:At its peak, Google Reader had 30M users but no executive... by influx on Thursday July 13, 2023 @01:26AM (#36705324)

I'm happy with https://feedbin.com/

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Re:At its peak, Google Reader had 30M users but no executive... by RamblingCTO on Thursday July 13, 2023 @07:14AM (#36707461)

Looks nice, but the value proposition sucks for 5 bucks a month

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Re:At its peak, Google Reader had 30M users but no executive... by janfoeh on Thursday July 13, 2023 @07:32AM (#36707598)

As a customer of theirs for probably around two years, I could not disagree more.

As far as online services go, Feedbin is absolute perfection.

They offer a clearly defined service. I give them money and they provide said service. It is rock-solid. One invoice email every month, and _absolutely nothing else_.

No changes. No feature creep. No upselling. No customer satisfaction surveys. Zero bullshit, zero annoyances. None. Zip. Zilch.

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Re:At its peak, Google Reader had 30M users but no executive... by OJFord on Thursday July 13, 2023 @07:41AM (#36707679)

I used to pay for it but it there was slow response to bugs and no appetite for new features. You might call it feature creep, but there were feeds I wanted to read that it couldn't render, and OSS that could.

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Re:At its peak, Google Reader had 30M users but no executive... by janfoeh on Thursday July 13, 2023 @08:00AM (#36707852)

I would call that maintenance, not feature creep. And sure, I would expect those problems to be resolved, too.

It's just something I have not encountered myself.

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Re:At its peak, Google Reader had 30M users but no executive... by RamblingCTO on Thursday July 13, 2023 @08:59AM (#36708425)

Why would I want to pay monthly for a feed reader? What's the added value? Why feedbin? I was building something similar for newsletters with newsletterify.com. The value proposition was simple: clean inbox, help with information overload. I also wanted to add summaries and recommendations. Help me out with all the information overload. It would've been similarly priced. And I probably would've thrown in an RSS reader later. (I want to continue the project later this year, but now I'm drowned)

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Re:At its peak, Google Reader had 30M users but no executive... by j1elo on Thursday July 13, 2023 @09:31AM (#36708845)

I don't have much to add to the discussion about feed readers, but I think you're seeing a good lesson on the value of actually shipping. It is harder than it seems.

Their value, for now, is that they managed to push it through and actually deliver a solid product (apparently, from what the commenter said), with a sensible form of self-sustaining, so users can rely on it still existing in 3 years time. That's also itself part of the value proposition, for lots of users.

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Re:At its peak, Google Reader had 30M users but no executive... by RamblingCTO on Friday July 14, 2023 @04:41AM (#36721101)

I see that! But I also shipped 2markdown.com and I have a main gig where I also ship. I shipped newsletterify as well, it's up and running but didn't attract any users at all. So I'll do a second run later this year, with a rewrite and a different pricing model (adding a free tier).

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Re:At its peak, Google Reader had 30M users but no executive... by j1elo on Friday July 14, 2023 @05:41AM (#36721640)

Woah you have a good amount of products going on, no wonder you're swamped. Congrats on all those, and wish you good luck with them and future launches!

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Re:At its peak, Google Reader had 30M users but no executive... by RamblingCTO on Sunday July 16, 2023 @03:48AM (#36744575)

Thank you so much! It's a lot, but it's fun most of the times!

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Re:At its peak, Google Reader had 30M users but no executive... by sf4lifer on Thursday July 13, 2023 @08:38AM (#36708227)

This is likely why no exec supported google reader and it shut down: people aren't willing to pay for it.

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Re:At its peak, Google Reader had 30M users but no executive... by lporto on Thursday July 13, 2023 @09:01AM (#36708455)

Feedbin can extract the full content of an article for feeds that only offer partial-content. This way you can keep reading without leaving.

How does this work? Is it client-side, like FF Reader View? Or does it request an archived article from Feedbin servers?

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Re:At its peak, Google Reader had 30M users but no executive... by joiqj on Thursday July 13, 2023 @05:02AM (#36706574)

There have been tons of alternatives and they all sucked in different ways - either they were bloated (no, a news reader does not need "far more features") or they weren't free.

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Re:At its peak, Google Reader had 30M users but no executive... by massysett on Thursday July 13, 2023 @05:48AM (#36706869)

If a product sucks only because it isn’t free, then the product itself is literally worthless. How do people expect someone to provide them something worthwhile for free.

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Re:At its peak, Google Reader had 30M users but no executive... by joiqj on Thursday July 13, 2023 @06:18AM (#36707033)

If I had to pay for every worthy free product I use every day...

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Re:At its peak, Google Reader had 30M users but no executive... by vogon_laureate on Thursday July 13, 2023 @08:30AM (#36708141)

That's the thing. I think people forget just how much FOSS software, tools, assets and knowledge is out there that we all benefit from enormously every single day. Even if you're not a dev, most of the websites we visit, the apps we use, the technology underpinning our phones and computers relies in part or in whole on Free and Open Source Software.

I take it for granted but it's important to remember what an amazing thing that is.

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Re:At its peak, Google Reader had 30M users but no executive... by FuckButtons on Thursday July 13, 2023 @07:49AM (#36707754)

Because of the existence of really incredible FOSS? Lots of incredibly useful software from Linux to web browsers and more are free.

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Re:At its peak, Google Reader had 30M users but no executive... by EduardoBautista on Thursday July 13, 2023 @11:24AM (#36710684)

Linux is good primarily because of enterprise support which brings in millions in funding. Enterprises are willing to pay for it.

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