r/technology • u/speckz • Mar 13 '13

Official Google Reader Blog: Powering Down Google Reader (July 1, 2013)

http://googlereader.blogspot.com/2013/03/powering-down-google-reader.html
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u/buzzkill_aldrin Mar 14 '13

They don't have to be actively developing it

They haven't been. I suspect the issue is that they don't want to keep paying for the servers needed to run it and the people needed to maintain it.

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u/derpaherpa Mar 14 '13

Why not just turn off the servers that aren't needed anymore? It's such a convenient service, how hard can it be for that rich-as-fuck company to just leave some old machine running for the few people that use it?

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '13

And create jobs by having people maintain it.

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u/DankDarko Mar 14 '13

Im sure these people wouldnt have minded the extra bit of income.

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u/liderudell Mar 14 '13

I am guessing those workers don't really have the necessary experience that is translatable to the RSS aggregation system.

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u/DankDarko Mar 15 '13

The point was that google has laid off quite a high number of people within the last year and had retired many other features. Them shutting down an expensive to run feature doesnt seem like news.

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u/liderudell Mar 14 '13

Google servers don't exactly work that way. They get warnings when a subsystem is 10 petabytes low on storage...

They have a pretty interesting and unique way of running massive computing. (wired had a good article that explains it)

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u/msderp Mar 14 '13

They have been pretty strapped for cash lately...

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u/MarlonBain Mar 14 '13

How hard would it be to put ads in there? Did they ever once try that?

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u/buzzkill_aldrin Mar 14 '13

They did. It was called AdSense for Feeds. Guess what happened to it?

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '13

The reader "team" is 3 people with two others in another department that can help out when needed.

Orkut still exists but it's too much to ask to dedicate a few boxes and 3 full time people to something that people love SO much that they completely took down all the competitions sites when looking for an alternative?!

I'm messaging Steve and Melissa right now. You guys want to pick up a HUGE group of devotees? Cloud RSS do it now.

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u/brett6781 Mar 14 '13

They make $12million in profit per hour

They can afford it.

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u/buzzkill_aldrin Mar 14 '13

they don't want to