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Google Reader petition hits 100,000 signatures
The campaign to save the popular aggregator Google Reader is gaining force, with 100,000 people putting their names to on online petition in a bid to stop Google withdrawing the service.
Earlier this week Google announced it was to withdraw its Google Reader service due to declining interest in the RSS content aggregator.
The Keep Google Reader Running petition on Change.org generated more than 400,000 page views since Wednesday.
At least eight related petitions have been started on the site since Wednesday, several of which also have thousands of signatures.
“People were clearly shocked and dismayed about Google’s decision, and they came to Change.org to make their voices heard.” said Charlotte Hill, a spokesperson for the website.
Google made the announcement in its company blog, saying: "There are two simple reasons for this: usage of Google Reader has declined, and as a company we are pouring all of our energy into fewer products,"
The Reader application was launched in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favourite websites. The service will be retired on July 1.
Google said users and developers interested in alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with "Google Takeout" service over the course of the next four months.
Whilst the web giant cites the decline in usage of Google Reader as a reason for discontinuing it, the loss of the aggregator will be a blow to its many loyal fans.
“The death of Google Reader could spell doom for the RSS protocol itself, which has seen waning popularity since the rise of social sharing services,” according to The Verge.
“The writing has been on the wall for RSS clients in general as Twitter and other social networks have grown better at delivering the news,” Gizmodo says. “But still, the diehards who were still using Google Reader every day (and there’s a lot of them!) will have to figure out a brand new internet reading routine come July.”
Google says that anyone not wanting to lose the data they have saved with Google Reader can download it using Google and store it in XML file.
There are several free alternative RSS services that people could use including Feedly, Friendfeed, Netvibes and RSS Owl.
Following the announcement, Google Reader fans took to Twitter to express their disappointment.
Molly Wood wrote: “Really, though. They're shutting DOWN Google Reader? Like how hard is Google Reader to maintain? Compared to moon trips and autonomous cars?”
Mark Ferguson wrote: “Google Reader is ace – so why would you scrap it?”