The Real RSS Killer

Google Reader Killed RSS

I miss the RSS world of the early 2000’s as much as anyone. I miss it almost as much as I miss McCarren Pool having no water in it and new Spoon albums sounding fresh. This is why I feel compelled to point out that those mourning Google Reader are forgetting that it was actually responsible for ruining the whole thing.

It went like this: Google Reader killed RSS, and then like a decade later Google killed Google Reader. You’re having a funeral for the tame old fox that was mysteriously living in your henhouse.

I can vaguely remember Bloglines and a few other services that were around in the 2000s when Google entered the market for RSS readers. Heck, I can remember when you could read RSS feeds within your browser.

I also remember that Google Reader wasn’t that brilliant, but I’d forgotten just how bad it was!

While its demise opened the way for resumed competition, I think I agree with the author that Google (along with Facebook and Twitter) had done a good job of decimating the landscape.