Posted by Phil Moore on Jun 23, 2013 in News, Tech |
Google Reader is being retired, sending tech geeks scrambling to find a replacement reader while prompting mainstream internet users stop and ask, “What’s a reader?” That dichotomy exemplifies the divergence between how geeks and regular folks use the internet. An RSS Reader is an automated app which scrapes the latest stories from the websites you tell it to, and allows you to read them all in a row in one centralized place. It’s been around forever but never caught on with the mainstream, and as Google doesn’t keep around niche products whose popularity is shrinking, it axed Google Reader. Now AOL, Digg, and others are releasing their own replacement Readers. If you’re among the group asking what a Reader is, should you care?
The short answer is no. Those who have come to rely on Google Reader as their primary form of web browsing will find keen interest in Digg Reader and AOL Reader as potential replacements. But one of the reasons RSS readers never caught on is that it’s a lot like driving a car while looking out the side window, not a truly accurate representation of what it’s supposed to replace. One of the best indicators of how non-relevant Google Reader had become is to look at just who’s stepping up to try to replace it. Digg hasn’t been relevant in five years, and most people don’t know AOL still exists. If Google Reader mattered, the relevant tech players would be stepping in, and Google wouldn’t have killed it off in the first place.
Still, for those geeks who’ve come to rely on Google Reader so deeply over the years that there’s just no going back to surfing the real internet, the rise of replacement readers from Digg and AOL means they can at least put off a return to normal internet usage for awhile longer.
Phil covers tech for Stabley Times.
Google Reader is being retired, sending tech geeks scrambling to find a replacement reader while prompting mainstream internet users stop and ask, “What’s a reader?” That dichotomy exemplifies the divergence between how geeks and regular folks use the internet. An RSS Reader is an automated app which scrapes the latest stories from the websites you tell it to, and allows you to read them all in a row in one centralized place. It’s been around forever but never caught on with the mainstream, and as Google doesn’t keep around niche products whose popularity is shrinking, it axed Google Reader. Now AOL, Digg, and others are releasing their own replacement Readers. If you’re among the group asking what a Reader is, should you care?
The short answer is no. Those who have come to rely on Google Reader as their primary form of web browsing will find keen interest in Digg Reader and AOL Reader as potential replacements. But one of the reasons RSS readers never caught on is that it’s a lot like driving a car while looking out the side window, not a truly accurate representation of what it’s supposed to replace. One of the best indicators of how non-relevant Google Reader had become is to look at just who’s stepping up to try to replace it. Digg hasn’t been relevant in five years, and most people don’t know AOL still exists. If Google Reader mattered, the relevant tech players would be stepping in, and Google wouldn’t have killed it off in the first place.
Still, for those geeks who’ve come to rely on Google Reader so deeply over the years that there’s just no going back to surfing the real internet, the rise of replacement readers from Digg and AOL means they can at least put off a return to normal internet usage for awhile longer.
Phil covers tech for Stabley Times.