It is has been decided by the Google gods—Reader no longer has a place at the Google table and will be put down like Old Yeller. While this may come as a shock to many who have learned to depend on the service like the personalized RSS newspaper it is (myself included), it is a great example of how competitive tech companies are remaining competitive—by NOT listening to the public.
Yes, this is typically the quickest way to lose your
customers and in turn your competitive edge but to be true leaders in the
marketplace (companies such as Google, Facebook and Apple) realize to make
their visions happen, they need to make big changes and many of those are going
to be at first, very unpopular. They understand they can’t have it all, but to
have the most sometimes you need to give up the little parts—and Reader
unfortunately has been deemed one of those parts.
So what’s the big picture? Only the big companies know, but instead
of petitioning the past, we should be casting chicken bones for the future. It’s
an exciting one for users and marketers alike. And lucky for us, there are
plenty of small companies to pick up the scraps. Feedly, Pulse, NetVibes,
NewsBlur, the list goes on, are all chomping at the bit to take in this new
business. Will these companies leave us to develop bigger and better things as
well? Of course they will. But first they’ll have to impress us with a better Google
Reader.
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