NotesThese projects are all very different, but the dynamic is the same. Someone builds a cool, free product, it gets popular, and that popularity attracts a buyer. The new owner shuts the product down and the founders issue a glowing press release about how excited they are about synergies going forward. They are never heard from again.
Whether or not this is done in good faith, in practice this kind of 'exit event' is a pump-and-dump scheme. The very popularity that attracts a buyer also makes the project financially unsustainable. The owners cash out, the acquirer gets some good engineers, and the users get screwed. Unfurl
NotesIn case it helps, I hereby declare the following iron law of âfreeâ internet services:
If youâre not paying for something, you have no reason to expect it to be there tomorrow.
This is an important corollary to the law âIf youâre not paying for something, youâre not a customer; youâre the product being soldâ.Unfurl
Notes<blockquote>I've made it possible to import all your shared or starred articles from Google Reader into Pinboard. You can find step-by-step instructions for this on the import page</blockquote>
Like a boss.Unfurl
Notes This is essential. There were several feeds that I subscribed to from individuals that were an absolutely vital part of my informational flow. Now, I no longer have access to those feeds. Instead, Google hopes that I'll watch those same people in Google+ to see what they share publicly. Only these were private feeds meant pretty much only for me. In the 36 hours or so that I've been using the new Reader, I've been unable to access these feeds or find alternatives that are as easy to use. Unfurl
NotesAnd that is exactly whatâs bugging me about the death of Reader Share. It was an info pantry, not a colanderâa place well stocked with nourishing brain food. I followed a number of people who had demonstrated, day after day, a sharp eye for items worth my time. Every time I clicked that âpeople you followâ link to see what theyâd shared, I could count on learning something.EmbedUnfurl
NotesWe users had been warned for weeks that a redesign of the popular (and free) RSS reader was in the making, so the appearance of a new version didnât come as a shock. The only shock was how terrible the new version is. It subverts usersâ needs in favor of Googleâs. The company wants to fight Facebook with a uniform interface for its free suite of servicesâwhich also includes Gmail, Calendar, and Docsâthat will encourage sharing of content on its newish social-networking product, Google+. But in making the whole Google product line visually consistent, the company has crippled one of its best offerings.Unfurl
NotesBut for people who used Google Reader's sharing features, the upgrade is a big loss, for all intents and purposes ruining that aspect of Reader. The old sharing methods have been totally supplanted with Google+ tools, which, quality aside, are too different to satisfy the same needs. I'm going to dive into the nitty-gritty here, so consider yourself warned.FeedUnfurl
NotesEven before Google unveiled it's changes to Reader, it did not care what users thought. In the first blog post announcing the changes, Google said, "We recognize, however, that some of you may feel like the product is no longer for you." As a nice gesture, Google gave people tools for transferring their feeds and social data to other RSS aggregators, but the point was clear: You don't have to like what we're about to do. FeedUnfurl
Notes<blockquote>The shareable social object of subscribe-able items makes Readerâs network unique and the answer to why change is painful for many of its users is because no obvious alternative network exists with exactly that object. The social object of Google+ isâŠnearly anything and its diffuse model is harder to evaluate or appreciate. The value of a social network seems to map proportionally to the perceived value of its main object. (Examples: sharing best-of-web links on Metafilter or sharing hi-res photos on Flickr or sharing video art on Vimeo or sharing statuses on Twitter/Facebook or sharing questions on Quora.) If you want a community with stronger ties, provide more definition to your social object.</blockquote>FeedUnfurl
NotesYesterday, I got an email from a good friend with a subject line that needed no further explanation: "Google Reader." It was sent to a group of mutual friends, bemoaning the recent changes to Reader's interface, thereby kicking off a lengthy dis...Unfurl
NotesLast night the changes to Google Reader went live, and as promised, they've removed the sharing features. This means that the sharing features in FeedDemon which rely on Google Reader will eventually stop working, so I'm forced to remove them.Unfurl
NotesOkay, so itâs not exactly Occupy Wall Street, and the cause isnât quite so dire as the recklessness of investment bankers gone wild or the government bailouts, but Google Reader is being cut off at the knees, and a number of its die-hard fans (including a few I know from Google Reader) have taken to the street to protest.FeedUnfurl
NotesWord on the street is Google Readerâs social functions, its funky community of shares and comments, and the archives of these interactions, will all be flushed down the memory hole tomorrow.FeedUnfurl
Notes One of the fascinating things about Google Reader is how each group of sharebros/Reader Partiers/Gooderioon came up with their own culture within the system, in parallel of and isolation from one another, but fundamentally similar in intent and function.Unfurl
NotesWhen Google announced last week that Google Reader, an RSS aggregator with social-networking capability, would be rolling its social features into Google+, its disappointed readers felt helpless and disenfranchised against a powerful force. Unfurl
NotesThe skies are threatening as Ryan Ellis briskly walks up I Street NW to join a small group of people who had spent the last half-hour making signs in front of Google's D.C. headquarters. "This is the most loserish protest ever!" he laughs, taking up a sign that read "GOOGLE: DON'T MARK ALL AS READ."Unfurl
NotesIn short: This sucks. Google is trying to force its very loyal Reader user base into using Google+ instead. And I donât wanna! Google Reader already works for me; itâs not broken. And Iâm not the only one whoâs pissed. In the Atlantic, Adam Clark Estes notes that âthe world is surprisingly angry about the end of Google Reader.â Of course, itâs not the whole world that cares, but primarly the âSharebrosâFeedUnfurl
NotesGoogle released the previously announced set of changes around G+ integration and UI updates today, and boy is it a disaster. Since the general changes were pre-announced last week, most of us were prepared for the letdown, but actually seeing how it works end to end has made several flaws abundantly clear. Let's start with the obvious.Unfurl
Notes"This is a notice that we are discontinuing the free appjet.net hosting service on July 1st, 2009, so that we can focus on EtherPad. We are sorry that we have to do this, but we believe it is the best thing to do for both our EtherPad users and our appjet hosting users."Unfurl
Notes"FlickrEdit is a Java Desktop application that allows you to display and edit your photos in a variety of ways. It also allows you to download/backup or upload your photos to and from Flickr. FlickrEdit is written in Java and it uses flickrj framework to access Flickr."Unfurl
NotesHonest look at what happened to ma.gnolia. Painful, but honest. In a nutshell: Make sure your backups are recoverable, and prove it regularly. Someday, something *will* go boom. It'll really hurt when the data loss is over half-a-terabyte. "This week Chris and Larry discuss the Ma.gnolia's data loss, what is has meant for the service and in the community, and what may be coming in the future."Unfurl
Notes"Pay attention to what Craig says, and don't store anything on anyone else's server unless you know how you're going to get it off when you need to. Even better, don't store the original on someone else's server, keep that in your space and share a pointer to the data."Unfurl
GeekMom » Blog Archive » Why Curated Content Matters: A Lament for Reader Share
Google Reader Backlash: A Fuss Over Nothing? - Rebecca J. Rosen - Technology - The Atlantic
Google Doesn't Seem to Want to Fix Reader - Rebecca J. Rosen - Technology - The Atlantic
Dreams, discernment, and Google Reader | massless
Occupy Google Reader Takes to the Streets - Forbes
Farewell Google Reader - We'll Miss You - Forbes
Occupy Google Reader: My God, Google, Why Have You Forsaken Us? | WordStream
sunkencity.org: flickredit
Adactio: JournalâTo protect and to preserve
Where's your data? (Scripting News)