I have to admit that I was a bit caught off guard by the news. Time was you could actually write blog posts about stats. Eight years ago, I used to collect data like this because back in Web 2.0 well before social media you really had no clue how many people were out there. Then came along aggregators and then social media. Somewhere I have a version of this on MySpace... in German for some reason. And then life was good. Google Reader and Twitter trace the arc of my emotional well being. Until the first leg of that security blanket was kicked out, news so shocking that Ancient Mariner kottke.org posted, white knuckled barely hiding his inner angst:
You may have heard by now that Google is shutting down Google Reader, their RSS reading service. It'll be gone by July 4. Fortunately you can export your subscriptions and use another service...here are some suggestions from Matt Haughey and Gizmodo. Or you can wait for Digg's reader. If you want to forego RSS readers altogether but still want to keep up with kottke.org without having to visit the site regularly, try following kottke.org on Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr.
You can smell the fear. I saw it coming, you know. I once thought aggregators would kill blogging. And then wondered how they would kill RSS. Apparently now they are they 8-track of technology... or at least Google thinks so. I have set up Feedly on my home computer but I liked how I could check into Google Reader from anywhere. Maybe it does. I hate having to figure out new things at my age.
I also liked, more to the point, how I got a number generated for my care of Google Reader. Today it says I have 22,364 readers. I assume that some are bots and that some gave up reading years ago and, if statistics are to be believed, 17 of the Readers died before the Obama administration came in. But where will I find that comfort now? How will you read this once Google goes "click... voot" and the servers get sent to help run a social services office in Peru? Should I care? What does blogging without aggregation generated stats look like?
Time to bring back RSBS.
Comments
Maureen Ogle - March 18, 2013 9:52 PM
Glad you mentioned RSBS. I can't imagine how much work that was for him to create. I wouldn't know where to start. Anyway: I've not decided which service to use, but this Moment In Time inspired a blog entry from me, too. Dinosaurs we are.
beerinator - March 18, 2013 10:01 PM
I actually thought about rsbs for the first time when hearing the news last week.It would be a different beast now though.
It would require up/down voting and all sorts of other options.Things were simpler then, everyone wanted publicity.Now, I'm pretty sure I would get a lot of requests from bloggers to remove content.
Maybe I'll revisit in a month or two.
Alan - March 18, 2013 10:05 PM
It was a snap moment for me, too. I link to your post. But you seem to be saying things that took thinkin' and stuff. Not me. I was just morning my beloved ever climbing five digit number. My precious. See, I don't care about how the damn thing help me read others. I just want to know people read me, me, me.
Wheaty - March 19, 2013 5:42 AM
Here's a Google Reader alternative to consider…
http://www.macrumors.com/2013/03/15/zite-announces-google-reader-alternative/
dave - March 19, 2013 5:29 PM
Feedly does say "Always In Sync: Feedly is available everywhere you go. Your phone, tablet and computer are always in sync." but it looks like it needs a plugin for firefox, so not like google reader and a straight website.
Alan - March 19, 2013 7:11 PM
But that is syncing devices, right? Apps are so table top 1999. I want to hand over the heavy work to Google. I want centralization. I want it all free and scalable. I want. I want. I want.