The END! [of Google Reader]

Dear Google,

You don't understand how utterly devastated I was when you announced the end of Google Reader.  I mean, I almost cried... over a web program.  That's serious business right there.

And here's why:

Google Reader has been with me since I joined the Navy.  It was around several years before then, but I was late to the game, as always.  Google Reader was the only way the daily Texts From Last Night emails got sent out when I was in GTMO due to the actual site being blocked.  It's how I survived being off the grid for that first year.  Even though it was slow loading, Reader was always there for me.

Reader brought me my favorite webcomics, jokes, feminism articles (that usually just managed to piss me off), daily military news, advertisements from around the world, kept me up to date on World of Warcraft news, introduced me to I Can Has Cheezburger, and brought about my first bout of wedding porn addiction... all on one site.

Then, when I got to Bahrain, I was neglecting my Reader feeds.  I had to.  For several days a week I was working 12 hours a day and there was no time for awesome ads or a funny joke or cute dogs or wedding dresses.  I caught up when I could, but I always had unread items.  I just couldn't keep up anymore.

And then... oh and then.. Google got rid of the share function.  That magic ability within the application to share articles with your friends on Google and they could see what you had shared when they logged into Reader.  It was MAGICAL!  But then, G+ came and shook up our worlds and we lost the ability to share things and Reader started to go downhill from there.

I was less likely to sign on because to share my cool stuff, because I'd have to email it (ugh!) or share it on G+ (UGH!) and that was just too hard.  And so I gave up on Reader.  Whenever I'd sign on I'd have 1000+ unread items, always.  I'd go through what interested me, then would "mark all as read" for the rest and come back a month or two later and do the same thing again.

It wasn't until I got into blogging that Reader became a serious part of my life again.  To have other people read your blog, you usually have to read other people's blogs.  Which is cool.  But, going to all those sites, not so cool.  YAY FOR GOOGLE READER!  My one stop shop was revived.  We reunited our connection and happiness was had by all.  I cleaned up my Reader by unsubscribing to all the feeds that I no longer read and pushed the real world away as I dove into the blogging world, happy to escape the reality that is the news.

Then... a few months ago, in March, the ax fell.  Reader was getting chopped, just like Google Wave* had gotten killed the year prior.
*BTW, if you've never heard of Wave, don't feel bad.  It wasn't that great, but it was the only thing that let Teh Bear and I to chat on those lonely nights I had watch in GTMO.

I was in disbelief.  I asked all my devout Google Reader friends if they had heard the news.  Yes!  I hoped and hoped that Google would retract this atrocious announcement..  But they didn't..  No, no.  WORSE.  At the beginning and middle of every month, they would pop up a reminder when you would open Google Reader.

^^What sadness looks like on your computer screen..
I shared this on my personal FB page during a time of distraught.

THEY WERE SERIOUS ABOUT THIS.

Well, Gentle Readers, the day has come.  July 1st.  My internet world feels empty.  Void of my favorite Google product.  I spent a lot of time on June 30th (the last day) on the Reader site.  I went through all the subscription bundles, nostalgic about all the things I used to read.  Remember the "good 'ole days".  Hoping that my increased activity would save the program....  /sads

I'm sure I will adjust to Feedly.  It's all a matter of time.  But there will always be a hole in my heart where Google Reader once resided.  I will forever be nostalgic to my time in GTMO and Google Reader especially.

But in the meantime.. this will be me for the next few weeks while I adjust to the new way of reading all my blogs.

(image)