Goodbye Google Reader

„Some people may argue that the new wave are merely recreating the Google Reader experience. But what’s wrong with that? It’s certainly a solid start, and I fully believe that we can expect future innovation that will advance the experience, for those that want something more than a direct Google Reader replacement, while things can remain as they are for those that don’t.

Still, the symbolism of Reader’s exit is impossible to ignore. I personally started using it back in 2005 when it was my primary method to navigate the Web to find content from authors/blogs/websites that I liked, and discover others.

Within the next two years I joined Facebook and Twitter and – speeding up to today – content discovery has turned on its head from an individual experience to one that is inherently intertwined with social. We can follow our favorite authors or blogs on either service, friends, content curators, acquaintances and more can help find with discovery too. There are a million more ways to find good reads which has lead many away from RSS readers (or perhaps never to them in the first place), but for some of us, the need for a reliable reader that we control has only risen in today’s social age.

That’s why I’m looking forward to really knuckling down and picking the RSS service that fits for me. After all, it’s a buyer’s market in the post-Google Reader age.”