I have used the RSS news aggregator Google
Reader as my home page since it was released via Google labs in late 2005. It has been a fantastic tool for me to scan preferred
website headlines without having to install and setup an RSS reader on every PC
I have had. I just log into my
Google/Gmail account and voilà .
My news sources ranged local news at the Seattle Times to an international perspective at The Economist and the BBC, with a strong tendency towards libertarian
soft-tech sites such as Tech Dirt and
SlashDot.
The Seattle Times recently
put-up some sort of pseudo paywall limiting the number of articles I could read
each month without getting nagware popups.
It is hard to imagine how being annoying & difficult working well
for them on the web. They seem to be
copying the RIAA luddite playbook for hardcopy media refusing to play by digital
rules.
Two months ago on March 13, Google announced GR will be closed on July 1st due to declining use. There are RSS applications that would require
setup and installation on every PC.
Modifications would be a hassle to replicate. I will undoubtedly switch to another online
RSS aggregator such as Feedly or Pulse when Google finally pulls the plug
on Google Reader. Until then, I am hoping that Google recants
on pulling the plug on GR.
I love and am grateful for RSS newsfeeds and aggregators, especially Google Reader.
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