back to article Feedly gets Greedly: Users suddenly HAVE TO create a Google+ account

Feedly has done an evil thing: it is now demanding anyone who uses the service to log in via a Google+ account - thereby helping the Chocolate Factory to scrape yet more data from netizens. The Register noticed that dunderhead journalists who rely on Feedly were weeping into their cornflakes and beer this morning* on …

COMMENTS

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  1. Malcolm 1

    Whither OpenID?

    I wonder why this and other sites don't make use of OpenID. Use Google as your OpenID provider if you want, or one of many other providers. I'm no expert but it seems to work well for Stack Oveflow.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    F**k you Feedly and Google.

    I was thinking about moving to Feedly but no more.

    Anon simply because Google/NSA/etc have more than enough data on me already. no sense in giving them freebies.

    Perhaps Google is morphing into the public arm of the NSA?

  3. Graham 24

    Or you could just wait a while...

    From http://blog.feedly.com/

    "We also understand that some people would prefer to have more identity choices. So we have been testing twitter, facebook and wordpress login options. We will be rolling them out over the next 7 weeks."

  4. Dan 55 Silver badge
    Meh

    Make a Google+ ID just for Feedly. Open the Feedly website in a private browsing window. Job done.

    Or set up something else like TinyTinyRSS if you think you're hard enough. (I'm sure Vulture Central could do it for their journos.)

  5. Vociferous

    1) Google REALLY wants to track you, and

    2) Google REALLY wants you to use Google+

    Two birds, one stone.

  6. 1924MG
    Thumb Up

    I read this on Newsblur

    Recommended. Switched to newsblur from feedly 18 months ago.

  7. imcdnzl

    Well Google+ will be useful for something now ;-)

    It is a bit of a wilderness there and use less and less although the photo stuff is pretty good and it's becoming viable as a business social network now they've fixed some of the issues.

  8. Pete 2 Silver badge

    Cornflakes and beer

    > Obviously we're not referring to anyone who works at Vulture Central

    Why not? Don't they have cornflakes for breakfast?

    1. Vulch
      Pint

      Re: Cornflakes and beer

      Of course not. Breakfast is when the days bottle of scotch gets opened...

  9. Mystic Megabyte
    Linux

    Topfeed

    Is this any use? I have not tried it as I'm using 12.04

    http://www.webupd8.org/2013/11/topfeed-fancy-feed-widget-for-your.html#more

  10. frank ly

    "...vast online empire ..."

    I read that as 'vampire empire'. My speed reading abilities need some improvement.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Happy

      Re: "...vast online empire ..."

      Don't put yourself down. it seems your speed reading has presented you with the true underlying nature of Google.

  11. Spiracle
    FAIL

    Footshot

    As G+ is blocked as part of my workplace's Social Media policy I can no longer log in to Feedly at work. Time to go round the RSS reader audition loop again.

  12. Matt J
    Meh

    Bit harsh...

    ...calling it a "crappy RSS feeder"., they've been a good solid replacement for Google Reader (which strangely enough also tracked my reading habits) - and at the end of the day, I'm really not bothered if they know about the websites I subscribe to!

    Also slightly hypocritical of ElReg, given that (according to Ghostery), this site is currently deploying the following 19 trackers on this webpage...:

    Atlas - Advertising

    DoubleClick - Advertising

    Facebook Connect - Widgets

    Facebook Social Plugins - Widgets

    Google +1 - Widgets

    Google Adsense - Advertising

    Google Analytics - Analytics

    Integral Ad Science - Analytics

    LinkedIn Widgets - Widgets

    MaxPoint Interactive - Advertising

    Media Optimizer (Adobe) - Beacons

    Reddit - Widgets

    Rubicon - Advertising

    StumbleUpon Widgets - Widgets

    TradeDesk - Advertising

    Turn - Advertising

    Twitter Badge - Widgets

    Twitter Button - Widgets

    ValueClick Mediaplex - Advertising

    1. Don Jefe
      Happy

      Re: Bit harsh...

      But I can point out that you seem to lack a basic understanding of the current Internet economy without having to log into a Google service and you can respond with a big fuck you without logging into a Google service. I couldn't even read the feed with Feedly if I didn't sign in through Google. See the difference?

      1. Matt J

        Re: Bit harsh...

        Not sure I understand what you're trying to say... Feedly is an opt-in service, that offers benefits to its users similar to those offered originally by Google. A change to the authentication mechanism for an optional service doesn't seem to warrant a "big fuck you"?

        Surely it's all about calculated risk: would I object to signing into a health records system using Google? Probably. Do I mind using Google as an authentication mechanism for a service that aggregates a feed of public sites? Nope... although I can understand that some people with "eclectic" reading habits might have more of an issue... :)

        By the way, I fully understand how the Internet economy works, and personally I don't have much of an issue with it. I like the articles that The Register produces, and am happy to be shown (targeted) ads if that means that the journalists get paid. FWIW, I would prefer a subscription option which disables ads and targeted tracking, similar to that offered by Ars Technica - perhaps that's on The Register's roadmap? :)

  13. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Big Brother

    Google. We want to know who you are, where you are, what you're looking at

    Always.

    All your view habits belong to us.

  14. AndrewJE

    Just switch to NewsBlur

    I went with NewsBlur and have found it brilliant. So brilliant in fact that I wrote an app for Windows Phone that uses NewsBlur. Its called Swift Reader.

    http://www.windowsphone.com/s?appId=e1e672a1-dd3a-483d-8457-81d3ca4a13ef&signin=true

    Sorry Shameless plug I know.

    The great think about NewsBlur is that your account is not associated with any other service.

    1. gazthejourno (Written by Reg staff)

      Re: Just switch to NewsBlur

      Normally we squash these types of comments, but as you admit it's a shameless plug I'll let it through ... this once. If you do want lots of links to your site, do click here and read on. Ta.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Just switch to NewsBlur

        If you do want lots of links to your site

        Oh come on, its a Windows Phone app!

  15. imcdnzl

    The change has been rolled back

    They've just rolled it back now http://blog.feedly.com/2013/11/08/thanks-for-the-feedback-re-google-authentication/

  16. doowruc

    They just backtracked

    yay!

    http://blog.feedly.com/2013/11/08/thanks-for-the-feedback-re-google-authentication/

  17. JeeBee

    I don't care. I've already bent over to let Google have their evil way on a load of other services already. All they'll get off this is that I'm a feedly user. Big whoop, compared to the anal reaming they're doing to the content of my gmail.

  18. SetiroN

    Feedly is terrible.

    InoReader is the only proper google reader substitute.

  19. Nicole D.

    A uniquely contemptible entity.

    This only advances the long-looming requirement that one will need a Google+ account in order to use any Google service, including those you've been using for years with a vanilla Google account. Their recent move to the One Account system was another giant leap for Google-unkind.

    And so just as we find ourselves today effectively locked out of our RSS feeds on Feedly, tomorrow we'll find ourselves locked out of our Gmail accounts.

    The fact that I only went to Feedly after Reader closed down doesn't in some way make this a meaningless gripe: I willingly and knowingly chose to let Google manage and know about my online reading habits, which added to their already voluminous knowledge of me. In this case I am being extorted by Feedly, as a proxy for Google, to upgrade to still free but more intrusive Google service. Sorry Feedly, you sucked anyway.

    The inconvenience of extricating myself from Google will be enormous, and it will ultimately be impossible to do even if I never again directly use one of their services. But even going through the motions on that useless effort will be better than continuing submitting to this uniquely contemptible entity.

    I wait, no doubt in vain, for Google's demise.

    1. Nicole D.
      Thumb Up

      It's only fair and right that I append to my post that Feedly reversed it's decision within just a few hours, and returned access to the status quo ante. The put of a blog post about it that actually sounded sincere when they talked about the lessons learned. Good for them.

  20. Gene Cash Silver badge

    Google have finally done it.

    I've had a gmail account since it was invite-only, and they've pissed me off enough with scrapping Reader, screwing my Youtube account over, and pissing on the Android Maps GUI that I'm actually looking for a paid alternative email & calendar so I can drop all my Google accounts.

  21. Sebastian A

    Just wait

    Soon you'll need to sign in to G+ just to do a google search. It's only a matter of time.

  22. ITIT
    Facepalm

    Ah the illusion of privacy

    Google already knows everything about you. Whether you have a google+ account or not, it makes no difference. As if web searches couldn't be correlated to IP addresses. As if TOR (or any other tunneling solution for that matter) was fool proof. You might think you're sticking it to the man - you are not. If you exist in this world, if you use credit cards, if you use a computer, if you connect through an ISP, the powers that be can find out who you are. Hell, you think the NSA gives two s**ts about your lack of a Google+ profile?

  23. intelligentcreative

    Very disappointed

    Feedly offer a (very good IMO) service for free, if you don't like that you have to sign up with Google+ - don't use it, simple as that. Stop your winging. What gives you the right as a human being to expect things for free. If it was a ONLY a paid service and you still had to sign up with Google+, then I can see how annoying that would be, but it's not, it's free and it's great. I see negative comments like this all over the internet and it saddens me, it's no wonder the world is in such a very sorry state, the majority of people want to 'take take take', but are not prepared to give.

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