A sad, sad day is upon us, folks. After Andy Rubin announced his departure from the Android team, something else will soon slip through our fingers. The Google Reader team announced that the service would be retiring very soon — July 1st, soon. We can’t say this is a total shocker considering rumors placed Google at odds when it came to the future of Google Reader.
According to those rumors, Google Reader was never a huge service when it came to the number of users taking advantage of it, and that it was always teetering on the chopping block. We never thought it had the same staying power as YouTube and Gmail, of course, but we never thought it was so unpopular that Google would look to retire it.
Well, it looks like something finally pushed Google over the edge and convinced the company to put it down once and for all. We, at Phandroid, are especially saddened considering it’s one of our favorite tools. Google Reader has served us quite well over the years, and you can bet we’ll squeeze every last bit of use we can out of it before it’s ripped from our stubby little fingers.
With the three month “sunset” period, Google is giving everyone ample time to find new services, and the Google Takeout service will allow you to download your subscription list in standard form so you can easily migrate to wherever it is you end up going. I guess now’s a good time to ask you guys what you’ll be using in the horrified anticipation of this service’s final countdown. Let us know in the comments section below.
[via Google]