You don’t explain RSS. You show how it works, the person uses it the next day and then it’s done. He/she’s hooked. Things you see on Twitter and Facebook? They most likely come from people using RSS readers to fetch news like mad men.
Google Reader is dead and that’s a good thing.
Now, we’ll be forced to fill the hole that Reader will leave behind, and there’s no immediately obvious alternative. We’re finally likely to see substantial innovation and competition in RSS desktop apps and sync platforms for the first time in almost a decade.
Also, YES FINALLY JESUS FUCKING CHRIST. I’m still a bit mad at developers, working with an undocumented API for years without thinking about that day when Google will do whatever they want, as they always do. I don’t understand how developers can be fine with hours and hours of work being ditched forever. Shutting down a service is much worse than making a technology evolve, it’s better to have something broken than non-existent at all. Fixing VS crying.
Now dear developers,
Desktop: I don’t want my news in a browser tab, ever again. I don’t like chilling, reading news and have my machine spin like I’m rendering 3D for LOTR when I know that I can load these feeds really fast with a desktop app. Go desktop. This slow ass web shit has to stop.
OPML: I know it sucks for developers because it makes people able to jump in/out of their apps, it makes them independent the total opposite of what Feedly Flipboard and others are trying to do. Do not lock me in with sign ups. The WEB is the service, you provide SOFTWARE, I take care of the rest thanks.
Otherwise be wild, innovate (Dave Winer is right about the unread items count BS, but I don’t necessarily want a river either). I know sync is a big deal for a lot of users but it’s also a complex problem for developers. I think we can live without it, missing a couple items or reading them again isn’t a big deal when the app is fast (I used GreatNews now Veen Feed Reader and Weave). Keyword being fast.
I dream of being able to click a rss link that would open my rss client and ask me in which category I’d like to put this subscription in. All private. I share through the Windows 8 charm thingy where/when I want. All neat.
Almost a decade reading RSS everyday. I can’t think of an internet without it.