Farewell Google Reader...

I use Google Reader, and Google is gong to shut it down July 1st.

I deliberately use different services from various providers because I don't want ANY of them to learn TOOO much about me.  I will suffer poorer quality service at the start to avoid control.  In the same way I left Microsoft to go to Apple, and Google Search for Bing, I will leave Google for some other reader service.

Google thinks it is too grand to leave.  They don't know me.  I will accept 2 star service in return for being CHERISHED by some new startup service provider.  And they are out there just waiting for those like me to give them a try.  I'll try them...

I always will.

What companies like Google DON'T realize is that there will always be competitor services, small start-ups that will someday become the IBMs/Microsofts/Googles of the future.

Google has decided that I am not worth their continued support.  If I owned stock in Google, I would sell it tomorrow.  (Disclaimer, I own index stocks and some may involve Google, but I don't know that).

I sometimes wonder how much some internet service providers understand about their users.  Do they really think they have a monopoly on any service?  Do they really think that their users can't move to other providers?

There IS such a thing as thinking you are "too big to fail".  That's exactly the point where a company SHOULD be broken up into constituent parts that compete.

Let's see how much better the parts of Google serve us, the users, when they get broken up into smaller competing units...

And back up your Google blog immediately.  I just did.  See instructions HERE.  Its tricky, but I did it and I'm no genius.  It did take some effort though.