~ R.I.P Google Reader ~

It has been quite a journey with an application or service that I have used consistently for about 7 years now. From the basic functional web app to the feature rich upgrade, Google Reader has seen been a very decent application / service from the stable of the search giant, Google. 

Lack of active users, is the reason why Google is killing the service. I seriously doubt if that is really the case & most of the internet seems to disagree with such reasoning. Agree that, the way we consume information has changed over the last 3 years, after the rise of Social Media applications. The consumers cannot choose the shelf life of an product or an app. Companies change their strategy based on their business objectives. 

The retirement of Google Reader has provided an opportunity for many companies to fill the void. Not sure if the new application can perform as good as G Reader, but there are a lot of alternative already available:

1. Digg
2. Pulse
3. Feedly
4. AOL Reader

There are reviews available on the web for each of them, just Google them. With very limited usage of the above services, Digg being my current favorite. Shall post my review of Digg after spending additional time with it.

Don't forget to download your Google Reader data via Takeout.

More: Fans braced for Google Reader's demise flock to new services {BBC} | Where to move your Google Reader subscriptions {Techcrunch} | The state of Google Reader replacements {Tidbits} | Google breathes new life into Reader {My review from 2006} | Update Google Reader: See personalized trends {My review related to updated features 2007}