Google dropped Reader, and someone reported that “Google Alerts” RSS feed is not working. Maybe Google is working on replacing the RSS or Atom web feed technology so that it would work more in line with Google+, and like Facebook, create a “walled garden.”
We know Google does some great work correcting or improving existing approaches, for example, ‘Protocol Buffers‘. Syndicated feeds are ubiquitous if lately on the downswing, perhaps time for fresh thinking on the approach. Certainly modern web technology has much more powerful stuff like XMLLHttpRequest, Server-Sent Events, WebSocket, and WebRTC.
Further reading
- Former Google Reader product manager confirms our suspicions: Its demise is all about Google+
- How Google have lost opportunity to get millions of Google+ users
- http://www.loosewireblog.com/2013/06/the-rebirth-of-rss.html
- Interview With Google’s Ilya Grigorik On His New Book: High Performance Browser Networking