Sunday, March 17, 2013

Google Reader Over and Out

Brent Simmons:

I think this is a good thing for RSS and RSS readers in general — but it’s sure going to hurt RSS reader customers unless people come up with a sync solution quickly.

Although, personally, I haven’t felt much need for RSS syncing.

Update (2013-03-18): Brent Simmons:

I created a new mailing list for people who want to talk about the technical side of RSS syncing.

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The weirdest thing about most of the chatter since Google's announcement of the killing of GR is the extent to which commentators fail to go beyond the perspective of their own uses of RSS and Google Reader. This happens in the realms of (1) content, and (2) software and syncing.

I'll skip my rant about the content side for now, since you specifically addressed syncing. In that realm, I access RSS/GR from the following 4 devices: an iPhone, an iPad, a laptop, and a desktop. There are some feeds that generate info that I then import into MacOS only apps (e.g. PubMed search results), and I try to avoid these on my iOS devices. On the other hand, for most feeds, it doesn't matter whether I access them from iOS or MacOS, and the device I use depends upon where I am and what I'm doing. On public transportation, I use my iPhone; at the breakfast table, I use my iPad; at my office, I use my desktop, and my favorite local coffee shop, I use my laptop.

In the absence of syncing, I'd have to allocate feeds to specific devices, but why should I have to do this?

They do call this thing The Internet, don't they?


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