I'm Jonathan Bullock; creator of JBake, developer with a passion for the Internet, geek, gadget lover and fan of far too many sports. I occasionally give talks and tweet every now and then.
14 March 2013
I logged into Google Reader this morning as I do most mornings and discovered, thanks to a pop-up message, that Google are retiring the product on the 1st July 2013.
I'm gutted. I use the service every day on my phone thanks to their excellent Android app.
There have been lots of rumors floating about over the past few weeks about the future of the product but I never thought the end would be so soon. Time to find an alternative like everyone else. Maybe it's time to re-consider using Feedburner too.
Rhys makes a good point that this is a timely reminder about hosting your own services rather than depending on 3rd parties, something I've always preferred to do.
UPDATE: Just seen this on Twitter by Miguel de Icaza: "Every software programmer today: http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3tdh44/" definitely what I've been thinking, especially as I've done something similar recently.
UPDATE 2: Bit of background from a former Google Reader product manager. Magnet.io looks like a possible alternative by Russell Beattie, something he's been working on for himself for a while.