Bloglines Shuts Down, Cites Twitter and Facebook as Reason
By on September 10th, 2010

A few years back Bloglines was one of the most popular feed reader around, however, over the years it has been surpassed by several alternatives including .

Bloglines Logo

In early days Bloglines was one of the biggest contributor towards a websites feed count, and it still is for many. However, sadly users who used Bloglines will not be able to do so after October 1, 2010. Older websites feed count may also decline, specially for publishers who have been around for 4-5 years or more. However, the users are bound to move to other providers, so the count may jump back again.

Ask.com, who had bought Bloglines for $10 million in 2005 have decided to close it down because the RSS market has constantly been shrinking due to social networking sites like and . To be frank, I agree with that, because I have hardly visited my Google Reader account since past 4 months and instead rely on several twitter lists to follow feeds.

I remember having an argument with Robert Scoble on one of his posts about Twitter replacing Google Reader, and back then I did think that I would stick with Google Reader. However, as time has passed, I have realized how much more easier it is to actually follow news on Twitter, specially more after Twitter Lists were introduced.

Do you use Feed Readers or have you shifted to Twitter or any other similar service? Let me know your thoughts about using RSS feeds vs Twitter or Facebook to catch up on news.

(Source: TechCrunch)

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Author: Keith Dsouza Google Profile for Keith Dsouza
I am the editor-in-chief and owner of Techie Buzz. I love coding and have contributed to several open source projects in the past. You can know more about me and my projects by visiting my Personal Website. I am also a social networking enthusiast and can be found active on twitter, you can follow Keith on twitter @keithdsouza. You can click on my name to visit my Google+ profile.

Keith Dsouza has written and can be contacted at keith@techie-buzz.com.
  • kalavinka

    I think this is ludicrous as Facebook and Twitter are not news. These sites exist for different reasons and in all honesty, Twitter is crap at best. Bloglines closing due to social networking sites is like a bookstore closing because a popular shoe store moved in next door. I rely on bloglines to load feeds no matter which computer I’m on to keep up on what is going on on various web sites, news, humor, friends, etc. Google is a great search engine but I refuse to use anything else they produce.

    • Jennifer

      I use my netvibes as opposed to Google Reader and I have everything linked to that, Twitter, FB and my emails. One stop shopping you know?

  • http://www.uptomark.com jimmy

    i didn’t agree with your point of view that blogline is going to die. Although social media sites are used my millions of peoples but they are not news sites.

  • Vincent Clement

    How about Ask.com blaming itself Ask.com bought Bloglines and let it die a slow death. I found I just couldn’t jump to Google Reader for two reasons: 1) We have multiple Google accounts around my house. Leaving Google Reader active was a security and privacy issue; and 2) I just did not like how Google Reader presented feeds.

  • http://myspace.com/kleerstreementertainment KleerStreem Entertainment

    I have used Google Reader for several years and I must admit I don’t follow-up on a daily basis. There is a lot of great information there, but, my biggest problem is I forget about it, especially since I don’t have it visibly all the time on my screen.

    I like GR, but, don’t use it like I had planned.

  • http://shellis-sentiments.com Shelli

    I still use Google Reader. Maybe it’s because I have not figured out a way to optimize my Twitter feeds as you said by using Twitter Lists. Plus, I mostly use Twitter as a message board and not as a feed reader.

  • wil

    I’m going to lose my blog roll in addition to the loss of feed count. There really is no other site on the web that does the job. Google Reader is a pale second without the capability of maintaining a blog roll nor does it allow for the presentation of individual feeds in a discreet fashion — it’s all or nothing.

  • Carlos

    I was a huge Bloglines supporter/user and I am seriously going to miss it.

  • http://www.gospelhall.org Sunday School Teacher

    It seems strange to shut down a $10 million purchase. Why not sell it for a puny $1 million? 10% is better than 0.

  • http://www.RSSMountain.com Davoud Maha

    Ask buys them and Ask kills them. They have no clue on how to run a business. It is that simple.

  • bloglines refugee

    I don’t use Twitter or Facebook, and as of right now I’m without an RSS reader. I’ve tried Google Reader but I don’t like it as much as Bloglines. Do you guys have any suggestions?

 
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