Google Reader Dies Monday: What You Can Do

Thanks Mr. Google! You’re killing off the channel through which about one-third of Epolitics.com loyalists access the site: as of Monday, Google Reader will be no more. Back in the far distant past, around 2005, we once had a vibrant bunch of RSS readers competing for attention and users, but then Google Reader came along and removed their rationale for existing. Now, having destroyed that industry, Google’s decided that it no longer wants to be in the business of helping people track and consume websites via RSS at. Sorry ’bout that….

Of course, RSS was never a “popular” medium, in that internet power-users were really the only ones who took advantage of it. Bloggers, jounalists and internet professionals mostly, a description you’ll note would also apply to most people who’d be interested in reading Epolitics.com. And, when we’re publishing regularly here, easily half of the traffic to articles comes via RSS, the bulk of it from Google Reader (another big chunk of you get the daily emails via Feedburner, which Google bought a few years ago; if they shut THAT down, it means war….).

So! If you consume Epolitics.com via Google Reader, you need to make a change! Fortunately, Slate’s put together a nice interactive flowchart of your options, helping you figure out how to survive your loss and keep on reading the sites you love in a format you’ve chosen. Check the Slate piece out today…because there aren’t many tomorrows left for Google Reader.

– cpd