Say it ain’t so: Google killing off ‘Reader’

Without fanfare, Google announced that it is killing off its once popular Reader, a program that allowed users to subscribe to news feeds through a simple interface.

It was sad news for news junkies and researchers who used it to suck in thousands of headlines from publications both local and global.

Wired, lamented the loss, calling Reader 'revolutionary' and 'beloved.'

"That's a shame, because Reader was pretty great," Wired stated.

Google says Reader will go away July 1. Reader used what was nicknamed Really Simple Syndication, or RSS, to bring in news stories through a bit of programming code known as XML.

Google reader debuted in 2005 and morphed into a simple, easy-to-use program that allowed users to personalize feeds by curating them by topic in folders.

Many expected that Google Reader was doomed with the emergence of social networking interfaces, such as Facebook, Twitter and the company's own Google+, all of which allow for sharing of news stories to friends and family.

Since Google is allowing Reader users to save their feeds, other sites such as Feedly (blogs.feedly.com), are planning to launch clones of the service. Cnet (cnet.com) lists five good alternatives.