But let me be clear I never used google reader. But what I did use every hour of every working day was iGoogle and its rss feeds.
It did a lot for me and served as my home page for years, yes years…
I had a very minimal apps / widget usage that included RSS feeds (in blue) from the global and mail and CBC along with weather widgets for Both Sechelt and Vancouver (red) and google translator and metric conversation tools (purple).
It was all the home page I ever needed for years and has remain unchanged throughout the launch of twitter, google wave, google +, etc….
First to go was the google weather API in late august of 2012. It was open but was unpublished so developers who used it did do at their own peril. The weather widgets of iGoogle still work but the API associated with them was closed long ago. Then word of the iGoogle shutdown. Now granted they did give us more than a year of warning. But this was a clear departure from the customize your own google experience to you’ll get what we give you.
So when I heard that google was shutting down their reader I was momentarily surprised but then I though “We’ll that figures…”
Gone are the days of the developer focused company, where customization of an open standard was common. Where don’t be evil was the unofficially company slogan. I still don’t think Google is evil. But it is certainly doing it’s own thing. I am not sure if I will ever be able to find a replacement to iGoogle. But my web habits will certainly change after it’s closure.
Also allow me a moment of pure speculation…
What is next to shut down from Google?
Will Google say… Were not going to support jQuery libraries anymore… Or were not going to support google fonts anymore…
I am not saying any of this will actually happen… But why put your website in that position?
Which is why whenever I am asked. Yes, I embed all my font directly on the server when ever possible… Yes I use the embedded jQuery that comes with a WordPress install and yes I use an RSS reader that is based on my computer. And yes I used my own server to host all of email…
Why? Because I control the switch, And no external company has control over it and as were seeing once again… That is a very good idea…
Now if only I could find a decent replacement to my iGoogle home page.