Google Reader RSS feed to be retired

CALIFORNIA: Google is killing off Google Reader, its less-than-main-stream RSS aggregation tool, citing declining popularity. The service will be taken down on July 1. In a Google blog post on the company’s ‘spring clean’, the firm’s senior vice-president of technical infrastructure, Urs Holzle, said Reader launched in 2005 to help people track updates on their favourite sites, and it will be retired despite a loyal following. “Users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with Google takeout over the course of four months,” he wrote. RSS, which stands for either rich site summary or dimple syndication, became a familiar fixture on news sites, encourageing users to subscribe to ipdates in their RSS reader via its distinctive orange button. Despite a near-obsessive following among journalists — updates through Twitter, Flip-board and other networks have largely replaced it. Since the annuncement, a petition on Change.org has already amassed more than 15,000 signatures. — The Guardian