In a shocking announcement Google has announced the end of Google Reader after 8 years.
So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader. Users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with Google Takeout over the course of the next four months.
You can certainly appreciate the reasoning, it apparently wasn’t a popular product and drained valuable resources that could be used on products that actually turn a profit. Still many people are grievingtheloss of a beloved service, while othersbelieve with Google out of the way innovation will be much more likely occur.
The problem many developers face is that they depend on the unofficial Google Reader API to power their own apps and software. This isn’t the first time Google has killed a widely used API, as many developers experienced when they shut down their unofficial weather API unexpectedly last August.
To all the developers relying on Google Reader to power your own apps and software, all hope is not lost. Already manydifferentpeople are working on providing a replacement for Google Reader, including an open source clone of their API. In then end it seems that the silver lining in all of this will be a more diverse ecosystem freeing developers from being tied down to a single power like google. The future looks bright indeed.
About The Author
Montana Flynn has been making the web a better place his entire adult life. Recently hired as the Growth Hacker here at Mashape where he will be conducting human experiments in order to better serve and attract API developers and consumers.