[hungryhobbit]

Please, Google was terrible about using the tech the had long before Sundar, back when Brin was in charge.

Google Reader is a simple example: Googl had by far the most popular RSS reader, and they just threw it away. A single intern could have kept the whole thing running, and Google has literal billions, but they couldn't see the value in it.

I mean, it's not like being able to see what a good portion of America is reading every day could have any value for an AI company, right?

Google has always been terrible about turning tech into (viable, maintained) products.

[vinkelhake]

Is there an equivalent to Godwin's law wrt threads about Google and Google Reader?

See also: any programming thread and Rust.

[scarmig]

I'm convinced my last groan will be reading a thread about Google paper clipping the world, and someone will be moaning about Google Reader.

[refulgentis]

Lol, it seems obvious in retrospect, there really, really, needs to be.

Therefore we now have “Vinkel’s Law”

[wisty]

It's far from the only example https://killedbygoogle.com/

[burgreblast]

I never get the moaning about killing Reader. It was never about popularity or user experience.

Reader had to be killed because it [was seen as] a suboptimal ad monetization engine. Page views were superior.

Was Google going to support minimizing ads in any way?

[theptip]

Right. Reader was not a case of apathy and failure to see the product’s value.

It was Google clearly seeing the product’s value, and killing it because that value was detrimental to their ads business.

[DiggyJohnson]

How is this relevant? At best it’s tangentially related and low effort

[jamespo]

Took a while but I got to the google reader post. Self host tt-rss, it's much better

[largbae]

Can you not vibe code it back into existence yet?