Earlier this week, Google closed its RSS reader after admitting it wanted to bring its focus to bear on fewer products.
Having announced plans back in March to close Google Reader, the search giant admitted that its RSS service did still have “devoted” users who would be sad to see it shut down.
Google said in a blog post published earlier this year that overall, use of its RSS reader had declined significantly. Following the announcement, the search giant gave its users three months to find an alternate RSS service. As Google offered advice on how to transfer data to a different platform, it is not believed that websites with news feeds will suffer a drop in reader numbers.
Alan Green, a software engineer at Google, said that by focussing on fewer products, the company would be able to improve user experience.
Loyal users of the service did set up a petition in a bid to dissuade the search giant from shutting down Google Reader.
A number of other RSS services have grown their base of users since Google made its announcement in the spring. Digg Reader is one such service.
Andrew McLaughlin, the president of Digg, said he believes that Google Reader is a product worth saving. He asked the RSS reader’s users for feedback on the service’s design, with the aim of taking the best aspects of Google Reader and remoulding them to better reflect the needs of Internet users today.
Released in 2005, Google reader quickly became one of the most popular RSS services available, allowing its users to easily view a stream of updates from selected sites.
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