Mike Olsen: The End of Google Reader As We Know It and I Don’t Feel Fine

aNewDomain.net — What knocked the story of Android chief Andy Rubin’s departure from the top of Techmeme? What trended higher on Twitter than Pope Francis? What hit the front page of Reddit faster than Grumpy Cat?

You’d think Google bought Twitter or something. Or maybe that someone at Apple just announced that someone at Apple might announce something soon. Maybe someone figured out Windows RT. All these things would certainly cause a major kerfuffle. But the big mama turned out to be that Google execs announced they are shutting down Reader in July. The news trended on Twitter higher than anything regarding the new Roman Catholic Pope Francis or that music star suing iTunes due to a recording of her claim of having Bronchitis.

Check this out. Google kills Google Reader. I am still reeling from the news. We’ll be making sense of it all as the hours pass here at anewdomain.net. Scroll below the fold to find out why everyone is so bummed.

I know what you’re thinking. Reader? Really? They’re killing Reader?

Yep.

The thing is, as an RSS aggregator, Reader does one thing, and it does it really really well and really really fast. And if you live in the tech  world, cover tech on blogs or tech media sites like this one,  Google Reader is an indispensable tool.

Sure, there are other RSS readers out there. But they are mainly designed to highlight form over function. Flipboard and Currents look great, but you can’t get meaningful work done with them. At least I can’t. Comment below if I’m wrong.

And that is why so many people are freaking out over the Google news that Google is killing Reader. Google Reader is a tool and not a toy. People use it to accomplish real tasks. No one just kind of uses it. You either are all in — using it all the time — or you are using it almost never.

Alas. After July 1 Google Reader will be gone.

So pour out a shot of Kool Aid from your Google Glass or whatever you’re drinking in and from these days, and here’s a short, sweet though not entirely original  farewell Google Poem: Created in Google.

RIP Google Reader.

Updating this story … keep an eye on it for Google exec comments, explainers and comments from our aNewDomain.net community.