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.
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 …
...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
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?
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? :)
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.