Official reason
Declining usage as the web moved to social distribution.
Google · Media & Publishing
Google Reader
RIP
2005–2013 · 8 years in market
The RSS reader a generation of journalists and power users treated as a daily driver. Killed as RSS faded and Google chased social.
Launched
Oct 7, 2005
Discontinued
Jul 1, 2013
Cause of death
Low usage
What actually happened
RSS threatened the ad-funded feed Google wanted people to live inside. A passionate minority was not a business.
Lesson
A loud, loyal user base is not a moat. If a product sits off the main growth loop, it will be cut — migrate users before you announce the funeral.
Similar products that survived
Feedly
Feedly
Absorbed the power-user RSS diaspora.
Innologica
Inoreader
Kept the keyboard-first Reader ethos.
Related autopsies
RIP
Google Offers
2011–2013 · 2 yrs
Google’s Groupon clone, launched at the peak of daily-deal mania and gone with the bubble.
Commerce/Too early / too late+40
X (Twitter)
RIP
Twitter Moments
2015–2022 · 7 yrs
Curated story-packs of tweets. Editorial Twitter in an app that hates editors.
Media & Publishing/Strategic refocus+38
RIP
Google Glass (Explorer)
2013–2015 · 2 yrs
A face-mounted computer that made civilians into ‘Glassholes.’ Privacy panic killed the consumer edition; enterprise limped on.
Wearables/Privacy backlash+37
X (Twitter)
RIP
Revue
2021–2023 · 2 yrs
A newsletter tool Twitter bought to keep writers on-platform. Killed after the ownership change.
Media & Publishing/Strategic refocus+37