Comments on: What Does the Demise of Google Reader Tell Us About Open Web Standards?

By: Mike Brooks

Mike Brooks — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 21:23:49 +0000

I will definitely miss Google Reader: Sad to read the announcement: ” We’re retiring Reader on July 1. We know many of you will be sad to see it go. Thanks for 8 great years!”. I’m in the same position as one of the other commentators as I have just started using it as an RSS aggregator.

By: patterdale88

patterdale88 — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 12:05:54 +0000

Talk about G+ in wakingupto (link above)…, has anyone seen Google Now, available on jelly bean tablets?? – this will read your searches, posts etc. and make suggestions on a pinterest type board, which you can swipe away – this is not just your calendar appointments, but advice based on an interpretation of what you search for etc. i guess this is probably the key part of the glass technology, but how to define where this info comes from except through some basic on/off switches….

By: patterdale88

patterdale88 — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 11:58:03 +0000

very annoyed at the demise of google reader – i’ve only just started using it as an RSS aggregator. liek the woman in the H video says though “don’t worry he can export his feeds as XML”

Does anyone know of any open source RSS aggregators that I can import my XML into? Don’t care much for Reader per se, unless there is some key feature I am missing here…

PS Currents feels much more like a ‘newspaper’ but it is a memory hog disk-eater :0

By: mhawksey

mhawksey — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 10:53:02 +0000

So lets celebrate the death of Google Reader as an opportunity for others to provide innovative services around RSS.

Google Reader is dead, long live RSS! :)

By: mhawksey

mhawksey — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 10:48:28 +0000

The Internet has always struggled with being ‘free as in kittens’ at the end of the day someone has to feed and care for it. Can open services support themselves? No, but communities support open services. Whilst your community flourishes providing the substance your service needs it will survive, otherwise it dies.

By: petejwpr

petejwpr — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 07:52:52 +0000

Thanks to open standards, I was able to migrate to another application..

As others have pointed out, it says rather less about open standards than it does about the monopoly power of the Web tech behemoths – and, sadly, our tendency to be seduced into supporting the development of those monopolies. As Dave Winer points out http://threads2.scripting.com/2013/march/wakingUpToTheWorldAroundYou increasingly these companies are seeking to control what we access and how we access it.

What this episode tells me (or rather, reminds me – I knew already) is that Google does not act in my (or other “users”‘) interests. From skimming the blogosphere (ever so 2006 of me, I know), it seems that came home to quite a lot of people.

By: Craig Russell (@craig552uk)

Craig Russell (@craig552uk) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 11:57:23 +0000

For all of us who are excited by open data/standards and APIs this should be a concern.

Can ‘open’ services support themselves? Or will open always be an aside to the ‘proper’ commercial activity?

By: Brian Kelly (UK Web Focus)

Brian Kelly (UK Web Focus) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 11:52:08 +0000

Hi Martin You concluded This announcement is less about open standards and more commercial pressure I completely agree! The point I was making was that previously we felt that open standards would help avoid difficulties caused by changes in pricing structures and sustainability of commercial tools. For example in a a paper on Ideology Or Pragmatism? Open Standards And Cultural Heritage Web Sites published back in 2003 we had a fairly uncritical view of the benefits of open standards: "Although a commitment to Web development based on open standards is desirable in practice it is likely that there will be occasions when use of proprietary solutions may be needed. But the acceptance of a mixed economy in which open standards and proprietary formats can be used as appropriate can lead to dangers. So should we mandate strict compliance with open standards or should we tolerate a mixed economy? This paper seeks to explore these issues. We failed to understand that a company might be so successful in using a particular open standard that it made it difficult for there to be a thriving infrastructure of competitors!

By: mhawksey

mhawksey — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 11:20:29 +0000

“The view that open standards protected the user from the vagaries of the market place seems to be undermined”
Hmm not sure if this is a standards thing. It’s more about the confidence in web services. Web services choose if they want to be free, web services choose if they want to close tomorrow, web services choose whether or not to produce RSS, web services choose whether or not to allow you to consume RSS. The RSS Advisory Board has no power to say ‘you shall choose RSS’

“It also appears that successful applications not only attract large numbers of users; successful applications can also attract developers and companies who can develop an ecosphere of applications which are dependent on services such as Google Reader.”

This is perhaps where Google went wrong. Unlike Google+, which is notoriously locked down, the fact that companies could piggyback the expense Google went in aggregating all this data only for someone else to come along and monetize it … that’s a bitter pill.

This announcement is less about open standards and more commercial pressure (imho)

By: Andy Heath

Andy Heath — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 10:51:02 +0000

Ouch! Persistence of services that hook us in is a tricky issue – not just when the disappear but when they change – one builds up so much that depends on them its serious work to move on or keep with the change. This seems to be an instance of the general problem of software change (e.g. OS and other software upgrades – here today, changed tomorrow).

Love the H video Brian. I’m going to re-share on FB. Hmmmm – we have “retweet” but it seems we don’t have a word that fits well with re-posting on FB. “re-post” doesn’t quite have the needed ring to it. Any suggestions for a word ? (not to detract from the central issue here though)

By: AJ Cann

AJ Cann — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 10:49:40 +0000

“social sharing services are undermining the use of RSS for bringing relevant content to users. Perhaps related to this will be the difficulties companies will have in monetising RSS feeds.”
Got it in one.