Today is only Thursday, and there have been 2 big announcements in the world of technology this week. Google gives everyone a big “screw you,” and Twitter takes 140 characters to the max…
Google Reader to be sunset.
If you’re not familiar with what “sunset” means, it’s Google’s way of saying that the service will no longer be offered to their users. A while back, Google discontinued the free version of Google Apps, which I covered here. In this case, it’s Google Reader. Google Reader has been around since 2005 and has provided thousands (if not millions) of users with the ability to catch up on their favorite websites in 1 location with the use of RSS feeds.A statement from the Google Blog:
“While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader.”
Talk about a blow to the tech community. Personally, I have about 200 websites that I sort, filter, read, and share using Reader. And now, with no real rhyme or reason, that will change. Granted, Google has made changes (read: taken away features) to Reader over the years, but it was still the leading provider in RSS organization. What product will be a viable alternative? Many people are looking at Feedly, Reeder, and others. I’ve been using Feeddler on the iPad & iPhone for quite some time, and I love it. The problem is that they don’t make a program for the desktop. I’m hoping that this announcement from Google will change that.There is an online petition at change.org, where thousands of people have signed up begging Google to continue support. In my opinion, if they did decide to continue support based on the outcry, it would be in infrastructure alone. There would be no feature updates, and Google support would not help when something breaks. With that in mind, I’m not sure it would be worth the headache that users would have to endure.So, while Google says “screw you,” I say back to Google, “screw you, too!”
Twitter supports line breaks
This is probably one of the worst things that Twitter could do. The service has always been based on a 140-character message, and by allowing line breaks, you draw out the inevitable. Not to mention, it’s ugly to look at. The Huffington Post tested out this feature with the tweet below:
RTIFYOUDON’TLIKETHIS— Huffington Post (@HuffingtonPost) March 13, 2013
Of course, this post does not include the line breaks because it’s only visible in the native Twitter clients and the Twitter website. So if you really want to see how annoying people can be now, click here.Like I said, these things happened in the last 48 hours. I hate to think about what can happen in the coming 48 hours…
Matthew Evins 