Switching to The Old Reader

February 26, 2013

As a follow-up to my previous post on ownership with the ZAPP presence on the Internet, I wanted to talk about my recent switch to The Old Reader from Google Reader.

As you probably know, Google wants to dominate mobile, social, maps, email, operating systems, music, a whole variety of products and services. In growing the company, the original founders splintered and let CEOs like Eric Schmidt run the company. CEOs are great, but they are leading Google down into an uncomfortable path for its users. A path where Google’s interests frequently conflict with the interests of it’s users.

In recent years, many Google products and services have been trimmed or excessively modified to a point where long term users feel uncertain about the future of the company. I finally had enough with one Google service, the venerable web newsreader Google Reader.

I used Google Reader for a long time. It’s the easiest way to read RSS. Like many users, the innoculous little yellow banner letting me know a new version of Google Reader was available once I updated my browser frightened me.

I kept that tab open for a long time, and discovered the terrible news. Google finally did a redesign for Google Reader. It was long overdue. Like Apple, they moved on from their aqua roots into a bright white, red, and black world. At first, the new site felt jarring and to my dismay, Helvetireader, of course was no longer being developed. I experimented with different User Styles until it became clear I should simply accept the changes and in reality, is a better improvement.

Over time though, the reality of the relationship between Google and I became strained. While I did not use the sharing features of the original Google Reader, I felt a lingering sense of unease about the service, particularly because I did not feel assured the service would always continue to exist far into the future. I also read about the privacy concerns from Google, Facebook, and all the companies interested in tracking your activities over the internet, all in the name of creating relevant advertisements.

This is not the relationship I want to enter with companies on the web. I do not want to be sold for my eyeballs, for my interests, based on what I click on. I want my relationships with websites to be upfront. Particularly for something as essential as a RSS reader, I do not enjoy being beholden to someone else. These opinions developed over time, but finally, after realizing Hivemined wasn’t happening any time soon, I started Googling and stumbled into The Old Reader.

I was pleased. It’s a project by a couple real people, not a giant search conglomerate. It’s the best RSS reader for what I want to do, a pure replacement for Google Reader. While it is not as feature complete or as reliable as Google Reader, doesn’t have an iPhone app yet, took about a week to import with all the podcast links, it works. Sites don’t update nearly in real time, but it’s close enough to Google Reader and it’s good to know it exists. The developers are available on Twitter, a real person will answer your questions and bug reports. The only thing I want to see is a way to pay money to The Old Reader. I don’t want to be a free user forever. I want companies to sell me their product, instead of selling me, like App.net. And spell it out in plain english on their home page.

We are selling our product, NOT our users.

We will never sell your personal data, content, feed, interests, clicks, or anything else to advertisers. We promise.

Let’s hope more websites will adopt the App.net philosophy. I do not have an account, but I’m eagerly awaiting for the day when developers will create something enticing enough to attract me and my wallet.