Google Reader
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interface in Google Reader's final version
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| Developer(s) | |
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| Initial release | October 7, 2005 |
| Development status | Discontinued since July 1, 2013 |
| Platform | Web browsers, Android |
| Type | Web feed reader |
| Website | google |
Google Reader was an RSS/Atom feed aggregator operated by Google. It was created in early 2005 by Google engineer Chris Wetherell and launched on October 7, 2005, through Google Labs. Google Reader grew in popularity to support a number of programs which used it as a platform for serving news and information to people. Google closed Google Reader on July 1, 2013, citing declining use.
In early 2001, software engineer Chris Wetherell began a project he called "JavaCollect" that served as a news portal based on web feeds. After working at Google he began a similar project with a small team that launched an improved product on October 7, 2005, as Google Reader.
In September 2006 Google announced a redesign for Reader that included new features such as unread counts, the ability to "mark all as read", a new folder-based navigation, and an expanded view so people could quickly scan over several items at once. This also marked the addition of a sharing feature, which allowed readers to publish interesting items for other people to see.
In January 2007 Google added video content from YouTube and Google Video to Reader.
In September 2007 product marketing manager Kevin Systrom (later, founder of Instagram) announced that Google Reader had graduated out of Google Labs.
In March 2013 Google announced that Google Reader would be discontinued on July 1, 2013. As of July 2, 2013, visiting the Google Reader site provides an information page about the service's closure.
Reader's interface evolved several times from an early version, described by a Google designer who helped work on the revision as a "river" of news, to various experiences optimized for a wide range of devices, from browsers to the Wii video game console.
In late 2008, Google Reader had a significant upgrade to its user experience and design. Led by Google designer Jenna Bilotta, the interface now included a cleaner visual style, collapsible navigation, "Friends" navigation, the ability to hide unread counts, and feed bundles.
Some of the features of Google Reader in 2013 were:
Users could subscribe to feeds using either Google Reader's search function, or by entering in the exact URL of the RSS or Atom feed. New posts from those feeds were then shown on the left-hand side of the screen. One could then order that list by date or relevance. Items could also be organized with labels, as well as being able to create "Starred Items" for easy access.
From 2007 to 2011, items in Google Reader could be shared with other Web users. Previously this was done by sending a link through e-mail, directing the user to the shared article; or by creating a basic webpage that includes all shared items from a user's account. In December 2007, Google changed the sharing policy so that items the user marked as shared were automatically visible to their Google Talk contacts. Users criticized this change because there was no way to opt out.
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Wikipedia