Google Reader Still Drives Far More Web Traffic Than Google+, yet it's the one getting shut down - Polidicks

[IMG]http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/webdr01/2013/3/14/11/enhanced-buzz-3110-1363274182-0.jpg[/IMG] [QUOTE]According to data from the BuzzFeed Network, a set of tracked partner sites that collectively have over 300 million users, Google Reader is still a significant source of traffic for news — and a much larger one than Google+. The above chart, created by BuzzFeed's data team, represents data collected from August 2012 to today. (Yesterday, Google announced that it would close Reader in July.) We should add that this data isn't complete. Google Reader traffic became much harder to measure last year when Google began defaulting users to SSL encryption in such a way that masked referral data. And this doesn't include data from apps that use Google Reader as a sync service, such as Reeder. In other words, it's likely that we're actually missing some Reader traffic here.[/QUOTE] [IMG]http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/webdr03/2013/3/14/11/enhanced-buzz-13120-1363274183-3.jpg[/IMG] [QUOTE]The second graphic* shows measured Reader and Google+ referrals over time. This one, too, requires qualification: The changes in Reader's numbers can be explained mostly by the addition of new sites to BuzzFeed's partner network, not growth in Google Reader (the total number of visitors to partner sites increased, in other words). But the relative numbers are still surprising: Despite claims that it has over 100m monthly active users, Google+ barely moves the needle for sites across the network, while Reader is a healthy source of readers.[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.buzzfeed.com/jwherrman/google-reader-still-sends-far-more-traffic-than-google[/url] god the corporate culture at Google must be horrendous

Woah, people use G+?

To the surprise of nobody

People prefer to use a news reader to get their news rather than a social network? Who would have thought?! This is dumb, they're trying to pass off Google Reader as being generally used more than Google Plus, when they're only actually counting news site referrals

Yeah, that's definitely a misleading graph. Of course people who use Google Reader have more referrals to news sites - it's a damn news reader. Google+ is a social network. They're shutting it down because it just isn't profitable.

Very misleading graph.

Why doesn't google just put ads in Reader? It doesn't seem like they've made any attempts to monetize it, no wonder they want to shut it down. My newsfeeds are by far the richest source of information on me so you'd think an advertising company like google would be all over that.

[QUOTE=don868;39918114]Woah, people use G+?[/QUOTE] I use it for google hangouts.

Yeah, the only main reason I ever use google plus is to video chat with friends.

[QUOTE=.Isak.;39918342]Yeah, that's definitely a misleading graph. Of course people who use Google Reader have more referrals to news sites - it's a damn news reader. Google+ is a social network. They're shutting it down because it just isn't profitable.[/QUOTE] I don't think that's why they're shutting it down. It's just too big, people rely on it. Every other big RSS reader uses the reader API. [url]http://www.marco.org/2013/03/13/google-reader-sunset[/url] [quote]Google Reader is a convenient way to sync between our RSS clients today, but back when it was launched in 2005 (before iPhones), it destroyed the market for desktop RSS clients. Client innovation completely stopped for a few years until iOS made it a market again — but every major iOS RSS client is still dependent on Google Reader for feed crawling and sync. Now, we’ll be forced to fill the hole that Reader will leave behind, and there’s no immediately obvious alternative. We’re finally likely to see substantial innovation and competition in RSS desktop apps and sync platforms for the first time in almost a decade. It may suck in the interim before great alternatives mature and become widely supported, but in the long run, trust me: this is excellent news.[/quote]

Google still wants + to succeed. I still don't get what the purpose of shutting down reader will hold.

[QUOTE=don868;39918114]Woah, people use G+?[/QUOTE] Since google has made it the hub for most of the services, plenty of people have no choice.