Google Nuking Reader over Cost Issues, Sources Claim
There probably wasn't enough users to make Google Reader maintenance worthwhile.
Unnamed sources told AllThingsD that Google is killing its Reader news aggregator over privacy-related costs. Reader was named as part of Google's most recent "spring cleaning" announcement, and is scheduled to go offline on July 1 despite the numerous petitions requesting that the service stay online.
According to the report, Google is trying to better orient itself so that it doesn't continue to get into trouble with "repeated missteps" around compliance issues, specifically privacy. That means every team now needs people -- including lawyers, policy experts and more -- dedicated to dealing with these very issues.
For Google Reader, there was no specific product manager or a full-time engineer in place when the closure was announced. Sources claim that Google simply didn't want to add the additional infrastructure and staff, but it also couldn't spin Reader off and sell it as a separate entity due to its deep integration with Google Apps. Thus, Google decided to kill the much-loved news reader instead.
Google's "repeated missteps" in recent years have included the whole Street View fiasco where the cars were scooping up personal data associated with home-based WiFi networks. The company was also recently busted by the FTC for bypassing security in Apple's Safari browser to install ad cookies tuned to the user.
Currently it's not known how Google would violate user privacy through Reader (subscription lists could be exposed?), but the closure of its news aggregator clearly shows that Google wasn't willing to invest time and money into making sure the service remained compliant. The over 150,000 users that have signed numerous petitions also clearly wasn't enough to keep the service rolling.
What's also unknown is how many people will be dispersed by the closing down of Reader. Flipboard CEO Mike McCue told AllThingsD that two million previous Google Reader users have signed on since the announcement. The userbase is also wide-spread, meaning it wasn't just used by tech junkies and gamers. The Google Reader audience includes mommy bloggers, manga readers, politics junkies, auto mechanics and more. The two million that Flipboard has gained probably just scratches the overall surface of Google Reader's userbase.
Nick Baum, one of the original Reader product managers who departed from Google in 2007, hinted that Google likely wasn't making enough ad-based revenue via Reader to keep the aggregator up and running. Back when he was still on the team, there were only "several millions" of weekly active users. Google also never included resources that would help users find new feeds and more.
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"My sense is, if it’s a consumer product at Google that’s not making money, unless it’s going to get to 100 million users it’s not worth doing," he said.
Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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velocityg4 I don't know why Google needs all sorts of lawyers, policy experts, &c. To tackle privacy concerns. It seems pretty simple to me. Just ask yourself for any data collection is this something that would bother a reasonable person? If yes then don't do it.Reply
All this means is they know they are doing wrong. They just need these people involved so that they can take all data they think they can legally get away with and avoid consumer backlash. The consumer backlash being customers lost versus money gained per customer. If a policy will decrease the number of customers by 1% but increase the income per customer by 2% it is worthwhile to lose that 1%. -
slomo4sho So user information is only worth selling if there are 100 million users being exploited?Reply -
teh_chem With the proliferation of Google Now and its transcending platforms, I'm not surprised that they'd want to can google reader. It's too bad though, in my opinion google reader was the most superior rss feed manager that I've used which worked best on all platforms with a simple interface.Reply -
cookoy I will miss it when it shuts down. It's such a great time killer better than FB. But occasionally i would find some nice and useful tidbits of info.Reply -
ddpruitt velocityg4I don't know why Google needs all sorts of lawyers, policy experts, &c. To tackle privacy concerns. It seems pretty simple to me. Just ask yourself for any data collection is this something that would bother a reasonable person?Reply
You would think. But in today's world a "reasonable person" can sue over spilled coffee, suing dead people cause they hit you when you're dead, burglars suing for cutting themselves breaking into to your house etc. Some questions are complicated, I've been there, sometimes you need someone who knows what they're doing.
90% of the stuff you can figure out on your own, the rest requires expertise.
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abbadon_34 I always laughed when people thought google was sooo great for "giving free services"Reply -
JoeB122 Why not just use www.24update.com? Its doesn't include all the features of Google but it provides a good overview of news from all over the world.Reply