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A comment on Google Reader: A Product vs. A Symbol.

Re:Google Reader: A Product vs. A Symbol by pron on Sunday March 17, 2013 @03:09PM (#5390549)
The post misses the role Reader played in the ecosystem. It may have been intended as a content discovery app, but it actually became a content creation tool.

When I was a journalist, Reader was my main research tool. I didn't care about what was trending. I wanted to find things before they became trends. I subscribed to lots of obscure blogs and publications, and Reader allowed me to skim them very quickly for items of possible importance. I was also able to go back and search all of my feeds for interesting material.

I think this article sums it best: Killing Google Reader is like killing the bees - http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2013/mar/15/google...

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Re:Google Reader: A Product vs. A Symbol by xaotikdesigns on Sunday March 17, 2013 @06:04PM (#5391269)
THIS! A thousand times this!

By the time it hits facebook and twitter, it's already old news. I have hundreds of feeds subscribed in Reader so I can find it before everybody else.

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Re:Google Reader: A Product vs. A Symbol by vanderZwan on Sunday March 17, 2013 @08:29PM (#5391728)
I completely forgot about how back in the day that Google Reader had sharing features, I would feel how non-reader users on facebook were days behind on what my friends had already shared and discussed on Google Reader.

And the discussions had better quality too.

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Re:Google Reader: A Product vs. A Symbol by aaronbrethorst on Sunday March 17, 2013 @07:39PM (#5391600)
Mind emailing me at [email protected]? I'm building a replacement for Reader, and you're in my target demographic. I'd love to better understand how you use Reader.
[ Parent | on HN ]