In what it describes as a process of spring cleaning, Google is to retire a number of core internet and cloud products, including its popular RSS service Google Reader.
Hopefully it won’t be all bad as the products will be replaced by more up-to-date services, but that remains to be seen. Google Reader (a firm favourite here at Silicon Towers), despite having a loyal following, will be retired on 1 July but Google says users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including subscriptions, to Google Takeout over the course of the next four months.
It appears the social web has replaced the good old RSS and we’ll all have to move with the times, whether we like it or not.
A whole slew of products are also to be resigned, including Apps Script, GUI Builder,Google Building Maker, Google Cloud Connect, Google Voice App for BlackBerry, Search API for Shopping and Snapseed Desktop for Macintosh and Windows.
In a blog, SVP of technical infrastructure and Google fellow Urs Hölzle listed a range of alternatives and ways users can migrate the services they have grown to love to the next newest thing.
“These changes are never easy,” Hölzle said. “But by focusing our efforts, we can concentrate on building great products.”
