DEVOURED
Google Reader was building the wrong future
Google Reader’s true legacy was not its feed-reading code, but an accidental social network that prioritized direct, algorithmic-free connections between creators and readers.
What: Google Reader, created as a 20% time project by Chris Wetherell, evolved from a feed-previewing tool into a massive RSS aggregator before Google shuttered it in 2013 to focus resources on Google+. The article argues that the platform's social features—sharing and curation without algorithmic interference—foreshadowed the current desire for more direct, unmediated communication channels.
Why it matters: The transition from centralized social platforms back toward RSS and email-based newsletters reflects a broader movement to reclaim control of the 'social graph' from platform-imposed algorithms.
Decoder
- RSS (Really Simple Syndication): A standardized web feed format that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format.
- Divertimento: A light, entertaining distraction; used here to describe the overwhelming and often shallow nature of internet content consumption.
- Social graph: A map of the social relations and connections between people and their interests within a network.
Original article
Google Reader turned out to be the social network that people wanted all along.
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