I blame facebook

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google_reader

So long, Google Reader, we’ve had a good run. Along with iGoogle, Google is systematically killing how I organize and consume information on the Internet. They claim they are culling the less popular products but make no mistake, this is a deliberate ploy to get more information about you (and hence more money). I don’t like Google+ and Facebook because they are very invasive, constantly trying to find out about my personal relationships. I have no interest in disclosing my personal information and activities offline to the rest of the world. And the rest of the world isn’t interested in what I do offline either except for, of course, advertisers.

But hey, nothing in the world is free, eh? The price of getting information is selling information, in this case, about yourself; information that can be all too easily leaked via security holes.

11 thoughts on “I blame facebook”

  1. Oh, how I’m happy to see a like-minded person!
    I hate social services especially how they are becoming popular and how people blindly trust it… I also hate Twitter which killed cool blogs (where people were actually writing something useful) and RSS… Poor internet.
    I spent in Google Reader more than 50% among all Google services. It’s a pity that they are closing it…

  3. I also got to this post via Google Reader, and just after I saw the popup, too.

    Really disappointed in them about this.

  4. This is one of the worst pieces of news that I’ve ever read (Internet related, of course)

    Is there any other web-based similar product?

  5. Totally with you. I was speechless when the closure notification came up. I use GReader all the time and have built up a very nice information architecture, as I’m sure have you.

    The thought that they want your interests in Google+ is something I hadn’t thought of, because I don’t use neither that nor Facebook, but I am sadly positive you’re right. Such a shame this is …

    I have just started to look for alternatives, yet this is a bit overwhelming: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_feed_aggregators

    Can anyone make recommendations?

    • I haven’t found any good alternatives to Google Reader+iGoogle yet. I may just use this opportunity to take a break from the internet. LOL

  7. Saw this today too, it’s a shame social media have to be so central. Anyways I changed to Feedly.com because it has an import function from Google reader. Not sure if it’s good or not but apparently they are going to add an interface similar to greader sometime in the future.

  8. For those looking, the only viable alternative I’ve found is newsblur.com
    Has anyone managed to export their data, I keep getting “The page isn’t redirecting properly”
    P.S. Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

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