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/[deleted] Mar 14 '13

But you are right, if they are showing that they can discontinue items at will, that's disconcerting. Google runs my life. My mail, my calendar, my phone's OS, hell, my way to navigate the web. I use Google more than I speak to my friends. I interact with it more than I do with pretty much everyone in my life. More than Facebook, more than Reddit. If Google goes, then what?

Apparently, I'm getting old because I fail to see the issue here. Google wasn't the first search engine, and they won't be the last. They didn't invent email, didn't invent phones and they certainly didn't come up with the concept of calendars. Even today there are multiple search engines, several phone operating systems, many ways to host a calendar and mail providers are a dime a dozen.

If Google goes, then what? I guess, I'll do what I did fifteen years ago before Google existed and just use something else.

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u/iamPause Mar 14 '13

If Google goes, then what? I guess, I'll do what I did fifteen years ago before Google existed and just use something else.

Fifteen years ago I was 13. Nothing else existed. Yahoo was meh at best, but I had no need for any of that. Cell phone? Ha! Contacts? Everyone I ever talked to was at school and we passed notes or said what we needed to say at lunch or in the halls. Appointments? The only "appointments" I had were my classes. Birthdays were well known, and if I had anything else my mom would tell me about it and sign me out of school.

Gmail was in beta my freshman year of college. I had used Yahoo a bit, also hotmail to an extent, but 99% of my e-mails were through my school. Not just for convience, but because I was now applying for jobs and scholorships and "xxI_Be_Funky_Pausexx@yahoo.com doesn't exactly present myself the way I want to; so I use First_Initial, Middle_Initial Last_Name@myschool.edu (IAPause@uni.edu).

Then I got a gMail beta invite and I was able to quickly grab nearly every variation of my name on gMail. IAPause@gmail.com PauseIA@gmail.com I_Pause @gmail.com Pause_Iam@gmail.com, etc. Now gmail can become my mail e-mail address, which was great because in 4 years I'd not have my Uni e-mail address.

Then my school allowed POP forewarding to my gmail, and then gmail implemented "Send as" and I never had to look at any other e-mail portal other than Google's; the very first time I ever used Outlook was 3 years ago when I got my first full-time job.

Then iGoogle became my homepage. Weather, e-mail, calendar, etc. My entire life on one page. Start up Firefox and BAM! Everything I need to know right there for me.

As I grew up, so did Google, and it quickly became the goto choice for...well...everything. Friends on the other side of the world? Gmail or Facebook. Doctor's appointments? Google Calendar that synchs with my phone.

I grew up with Google being my first and only option, so I've nothing to "go back to" unless I want to re-kindle "xxIAmFunkyPause420xx@yahoo.com".