The Death of Google Reader

Nov 1, 2011 | Personal

It’s happened. Google has axed the Reader that has been a part of my life for years. It was clean, slick, and had just enough sharing functionality that I felt connected but not overwhelmed.

I thought Google+ was a good idea, true. It’s a social network that looks a lot better and is more user friendly than Facebook. I was pretty sure it was going to outdo Facebook at some point as Google added more features. But Google+ is not what I wanted in my Reader – it’s a level of interaction I don’t need when I’m browsing content that interests me. Sharing, adding notes, and liking was more than enough for me, because I’m just not interested in other 90% of what ends up on a social network.

Oh, I can be a part of it, yes, and I can even post my own irrelevant crap, but not in Reader. Reader was only for sharing content. It was a little haven where me and my friends could follow each other and pass articles and photos around in a way that let us be a part of each other’s interests without butting into each other’s lives. It was simple and it worked, and having that replaced with the behemoth-in-comparison that is Google+ is just not going to fly.

The redesign is also a giant pile of crap, according to my better half. I personally wouldn’t know, as I haven’t refreshed my Reader page yet and it’s still on the old design. It’ll be staying on that for as long as I can keep it there, or until Hivemined is up and running.

…It’s just occurred to me that I can’t share this through Reader, and that thought is profoundly depressing.

And now I’m going back to writing for Nanowrimo.