I’ll Get Used to It Over Time

My Firefox default toolbar before:

With Google Reader

My Firefox default toolbar after:

Without Google Reader

Well, I finally deleted Google Reader from my Mozilla Firefox toolbar.  Yeah, I’d been (foolishly) opening it these last couple of weeks, just in case Google had had second thoughts and kept it running a little longer. But no.

So now, 12 days after Google Reader’s disappearance from the Internet, I’ve faced reality. I zapped my tab.

I’ve tried Digg, which leaves much to be desired, at least for me.  I’m currently using Bamboo, a Firefox plugin for Google Reader refugees.  I’ve been able to clean up my Feeds list at bit. One thing that irks me, though, about Bamboo: I can’t seem to add one of my favorite feeds, GraphJam, the source of some wonderfully goofy charts.  (It was a good source for my Pinterest “Goofy Stuff” board, too.)  Digg won’t import it; neither will Bamboo; and I can’t add it manually to either reader.

Oh well, life goes on, I guess.  Google Reader was dirt simple to use.  Bamboo is too, I guess; but it’s not as clean-looking as Google Reader.

As with every software change I’ve dealt with in both the personal and professional realm, I’ll Get Used To It Over Time.  But the loss of Google Reader hit a chord: loss of something simple that a mega-corporation couldn’t find the wherewithal to support. It wasn’t good for the Bottom Line.

So the Bottom Line matters more than providing a good product that people use.  Maybe not all 6 billion of us on the planet (Google’s goal?); but it was one of the favored feed readers for those who knew about RSS and used feed readers to their advantage.

Peace out, Google Reader; peace out.

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It’s Like Part of My Nerdnik Self Is Dying…

… or will on July 1, 2013.  That is the date that Google has set for turning off it’s much-beloved (by me) Google Reader.

It seems as if I’ve used it since it’s debut in 2005.  It it is a great way to keep abreast of new posts from web sites…without having to actually GO to the website in question.

This appeals not only to my tendency toward laziness, but also to my slight case of FOMO (at least as it pertains to information).

Somehow, there’s a bit of subversion to the action of using an RSS feed to access the media and other web sites.  It allows me to bypass the ads that are present on the sites and still read the articles.  How un-American. How un-Capitalist. How liberating!

Perhaps that is really why Google is ditching this tool.  They’re all about advertising,  you know; and there’s no way to insert ads in Google Reader, is there? It can’t be “monetized” (gawd, I hate that word!).

So I guess I’ll just use Feedly, or some such RSS feed reader. I’ll probably continue to use the Google Readers apps that are on my smartphone and tablet…at least until Google pulls those from action.

I wonder if the RSS dominoes will fall and web publishers will no longer use the Site Summary (the “SS” in RSS) that really makes RSS work.

Ah the golden age of Internet information sharing. Now it’s all about paywalls, monetization, and other ways to keep information at arm’s length.

Are we about to look at information through the rear-view mirror?