back to article Ask.com kills Bloglines

Bloglines, the web-based RSS reader, will be permanently shut down next month. Ask.com, which bought Bloglines in early 2005 for $10m, when it was the market leader, said on Friday that users should migrate to another service by October 1. "Not an easy decision, especially considering our loyal and supportive (not to mention …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Blogtrottr

    I've been using blogtrottr.com a lot recently - it's an RSS to email service, and combined with an IMAP email account I can keep my feed read status in sync on my work PC, home PC, mobile etc, or use my webmail if I'm not on any of those devices.

  2. coxy
    Unhappy

    If you don't Ask, you don't get.

    I realise this will probably never happen, that the chances are slim to none, but since Ask don't plan to use Bloglines in any way, shape or form (it's not like they're closing it down to integrate it into another product), I would really love it if they actually just released the source code for Bloglines under a GPL license or something.

    I'm having to find a different web-based RSS reader now and the reason I was using Bloglines was because it's not Google Reader.

    I've given Netvibes a go again, but it's incredibly slow. I wish I could just download the old Bloglines code, implement it on my own server and have somewhere to read my RSS feeds.

    1. dognolegs

      Any colour as long as it's Google.

      I've had to revert to Google, but, out of the box it is not as intuitive as Bloglines, where you could see the lay of the land at a glance. Maybe some tweaking with the iGoogle API will allow the development of a gadget that looks more like Bloglines.

      I feel very uncomfortable with Google being able to monitor what I'm reading, and who knows whether they won't take it upon themselves to censor news reports 'for my convenience and browsing security' at some time in the future?

      I agree that this is a definite opportunity for an open source or not-for-profit initiative.

      1. Reg Varney

        Agreed entirely about Google

        I have no desire to give Google any more information about what I;m doing than they already have from search

  3. David Cotterill
    Thumb Up

    Netvibes?

    If you want an alternative, try www.netvibes.com

  4. jerry 4

    The title is required, .... Boom shakalaka. The title is required, ...

    The service has not been updated for <strike>months</strike> years, and has suffered multiple outages <strike>recently</strike> since 2004.

  5. Reg Varney

    For some reason, they haven't posted my comment on their blog

    which read something along the lines of "you've bought a service that worked, done fuck all with it for years and now killed it. excellent, well done: I am certainly more disposed to use Ask's services now"

    Really, really pissed off over this - Ask have the right to run whatever services they want, but why buy the fucking thing in the first place and then do nothing with it. Their reason for shutting it down is total nonsense as well - if they can't tell the difference between the content of an RSS feed and the stream of drivel that constitutes twitter, then god help them

    Suggestions for a replacement? So far today I've tried Google Reader, Feedly, activor.us and Feedshow - hated all of them. Feedly is kind of interesting, but I want to read what I want to read, not what happens to be newest; GR and Feedshow don't allow non-alphabetic sorting, and feedshow doesn't seem to have been updated for the last 3 years. GR is also encrusted with loads of Web 2 shite: "like" & "share this" buttons, and the like.

  6. Steve James 1

    Moving to iPad

    I'm a virtual addict to Bloglines and have always loved the interface, despite the occassional/frequent hiccups of late. Been searching all weekend for a good alternative. Google seems to have the best infrastructure behind it and is likely to be better supported and arround for longer. Although I hate the Google Reader website.

    Plenty of apps for the iPad that use Google Reader but took a while to find one that replicates it as much as possible. Finally settled on River of News, fully recommend it as the best replacement for myself. And now I can take my RSS feeds to bed with me to help feed my addiction.

  7. Midas
    FAIL

    Yet Another Disgruntled User

    I've used Bloglines for years now and like everybody else just because it wasn't Google Reader (Which BTW I've tried time and time again and just can't get used to, not to mention the age old wisdom of not putting all your eggs in just one basket).

    It never had the sexiest interface, but it was flexible enough to provide for an enjoyable feed reading experience, with just the right control granularity in order not to be swamped in a avalanche of updates and to be able to archive whatever was interesting enough.

    I've also tried a bunch of feed reading clients and sites, but up to now none seems to offer the same level of usability for me. I'm sticking with Netvibes for the moment becuase it seems to be the least obnoxious solution (it does opml import and the reader view is almost usable in a fast computer). And I second coxy in thinking that Ask should rise to the occasion and just release the sauce over at Sourceforge, so at least there would be a possibility that someone would pick up the torch...

    I also totally agree with R.Varney comment above on Ask: "you've bought a service that worked, done fuck all with it for years and now killed it. excellent, well done: I am certainly more disposed to use Ask's services now".

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