productivity

Google Reader

google.com/reader | Shut down July 1, 2013

The RSS reader a generation depended on, retired for lack of a business case.

What it did

Google Reader was a web-based RSS aggregator that let people subscribe to feeds, read everything in one inbox-style interface, and share items with a small social layer.

The facts, as reported

Google announced in March 2013 that Reader would be retired because of declining usage and a focus on fewer products. The service shut down on July 1, 2013.

Google Reader (Wikipedia)
reporting | 7/1/2013
"Google discontinued Reader on July 1, 2013, citing declining usage and a focus on fewer products."

Marketur analysis, not fact

Reader was beloved and still killed, which is the entire lesson. Loyalty from a devoted niche does not protect you inside a company optimising for scale. If your workflow sits on a free product from a giant, you are a line item in someone else's roadmap review.

What to take from it

A free product from a large company is not infrastructure. It is a favour.
Passionate users are not the same as strategic value to the owner.
Platform dependency is a business risk even when the platform is huge and profitable.