The product? Google Reader. It is dead. Be back in a second to explain why. - Robert Scoble

Here's why... - Robert Scoble

Speaking of Reader, Friendfeed doesn't seem to be getting shares on time. Tweets are late too :( Still using Reader but thru Feedly :) - RK

...The new lists feature is totally making Twitter FAR BETTER than Google Reader. The only thing Twitter doesn't have yet is full text. But I've gotten over that. So, why is Louis Gray still holding onto Google Reader, even though Google Reader is slower and lamer than Twitter is (combined with FriendFeed)? - Robert Scoble

Cause people use what works, not always what is new... - Johnny from iPhone

Off topic question on Twitter lists: Sometimes when I try to add someone to a list of mine using the dropdown, I click the checkbox, the little icon spins, but the click doesn't take and the person isn't added. This happens a lot but not always. Anyone else getting this? - Bob Morris (polizeros)

Reader and Twitter are very different tools. Virtually every blog and news site has RSS/Atom feeds. Most don't have their own Twitter feed. And 140 characters, with URL shorteners? Get real. - Tinfoil 2.0

You are comparing apple and oranges. Using twitter as an RSS reader is almost as bad as following everyone back - Edwin Khodabakchian

I still bookmark websites. Cause it works for me. But what do I know? - Derrick

I still use Google Reader all day long, love the state save between mobile and desktop. I use it for the "hard news" stream, sans crowd commentary and noisy/redundant mashup of "friends'" likes. Great for following a multitude of obscure blogs. - Allred

I see a pattern here: Tomorrow's provocative tweet is going to be: Ok, Google Reader is very much alive. The real question is when will Robert Scoble get back to blogging! - Edwin Khodabakchian

Edwin. Twitter is my RSS, has been for months. I have not gone to Google Reader in months. - Paramendra Bhagat

Dear Jesus, here we goez again! WHEEEeee, would this be it's 3rd Life or reincarnation if you're a practicing Buddhist? Or maybe see what's up, give em call... - sofarsoShawn ~presque...

Scoble - Have you tried to use Email notifications or their Adobe Air desktop notifications? They are sorely lagging by 15 minutes or longer. No longer "real time" - joebrooks

Ok, that's just a bit too provocative -- I can't think of a single major service that Twitter can claim to replace, and Reader, one of the best apps on the web, certainly ain't one -- maybe if Reader had a "random crap" feature, that's where Twitter would encroach - Christopher Galtenberg

I agree. Google Reader *is* dead. It's certainly been very dead for me. I use it basically only to post articles to Twitter and FriendFeed. Lately I've been doing less GReader sharing and more favorites on Twitter. - Dennis Jernberg

Or rather, GReader's dead as a social network type thing. It remains very good at what it is: a Web-based RSS reader. But I do like the fact that you can share articles to Twitter, FF, Facebook, etc. - Dennis Jernberg

Hmm? Google Reader and RSS are fantastic. I am not impressed by Twitter favorites. Also not impressed by comment bait. :) Carry on. - Louis Gray

Twitter is only a meta-stream. You give up comprehensiveness for sheer popularity and randomness. - Christopher Galtenberg

I will stop using Google Reader when blogs and Web sites start publishing, replaced outright by Twitter. - Louis Gray

Poor Louis - he keeps getting picked on today :-( (sorry - I started it) - Jesse Stay

I want a better tool for the job - nothing does what Reader does for me right now. I wish Reader would focus on that aspect and not the comments or likes or such. Build a solid (not slow) platform for sharing and reading the news. Make the UI less confusing. Then maybe they could socialize it. Regardless I won't switch because there's nothing that gives me news and lets me share it like Google Reader does now. I just wish it was better. - Jesse Stay

Now Twitter is better than Google Reader? I guess I'm using all these technologies the wrong way because I use Google Reader waaaay differently than Twitter. I'm starting to wonder if someone brainwashed Scoble at the last Twitter event or something... it's getting a little bizarre. - Jan Ole Peek

Welp, I'm using it so it's not dead to me. - Shawn Farner

The recent spike in the 'dead' meme is just plain odd. Is it an expression of having too many things to do? The need to have some losers, and hence a desire to be on the side that does the killing? Would we prefer a Microsoft-like monopoly, or a limited Microsoft/Apple/Linux-like menu? Is attention too frazzled to tolerate and even enjoy a wide ecosystem of tools? - Christopher Galtenberg

Christopher, it's just a slow news week I think. As Scoble said, we're kind of in an in-between period right now and it's frustrating. - Jesse Stay

I still use Google Reader the same way that I've been using Google Reader for months - namely, to share items of interest to my Google Reader and FriendFeed followers (and now, my Facebook followers who see my FriendFeed entries). Perhaps it's worthwhile to note that I don't use Google Reader as a social network; I can't ever find the comments that are attached to Google Reader items. - John E. Bredehoft

Big shrug. Feeds are feeds. I don't love any of the interfaces. Growing fonder (sigh) of FB, though, as a hub for all of it. (No pink sheep though. Please.) - Kathy Fitch

I never really use the Google Reader interface. But integrating with feedly is great. - Nils Sandin

What are your guy's thoughts on bloglines.com? - Eric Vreeland

+ to Louis G calling it...approximately, more accurately though: load deflection disguised as link bait, - sofarsoShawn ~presque...

Consider how "retweeting" would have turned out if "twitter favorites" were listed in your own twitter timeline/feed. Twitter favorites are the greatest example of a feature that never was. - Andy Bakun

retweeting has found me many folks to follow I almost never check favorites counter intutive use of time an attention as the flow of tweets go by and I'm holding a conversations - WarLord

Of course you never check twitter favorites, it's has like zero social utility on twitter, they only ever show up if you click on someone's favorites list. - Andy Bakun

well as long as everyone agrees ff is alive :D - Mike Chelen

Another question: Why are you using Louis Gray as a model? - Amit Morson

Amit: Because we all agree that Louis Gray is our perennial model. Obviously. :) - Christopher Galtenberg

I find this interesting that Scoble wonders why people use an RSS reader, but wants more human curation. People need to seed the sharing, and those people are using RSS readers. Twitter would be helpful if there are a group of people curating news for you, then the most popular items continue to get shared. - Rob Diana

Robert, Not everyone cares so much about real-time .. some of us actually want to find something other than what's hot today or last week. We might even want to have a "conversation" that's semi-organized. - Chris Myles

It's not about information density for me. It's also about quality of content. There are a lot of great writers who aren't on Twitter or FriendFeed. - Steve Lynch from twhirl

another one of those incredibly naive " x technology/service is dead article". Sure the social aspect of Greader may be "dead" but that wasn't Greader's real focus...Greader will keep on going because certain people use it in a way that can't be replicated by twitter/friendfeed or facebook...and people will keep on using twitter, friendfeed and facebook because as similar as they are can be they can be used in very different ways. - David Rodriguez

Chris: me too. But I've been watching how Louis uses Google Reader. It's EXACTLY how I use Twitter (and we often find the same kind of stuff. Only I usually beat him in speed. But you can't see yet what I'm talking about because you don't have Twitter's lists feature.) See my favorites at http://www.twitter.com/scoblei... -- a lot of what is there is what shows up in Google Reader too. But only Google Reader is slower, harder to deal with on the iPhone, and doesn't have a lot of stuff. - Robert Scoble

Amit: I used Louis Gray as an example because I like his Google Reader shares the most. They are very much like mine. Plus he's the guy who got me to come to FriendFeed so he usually is early in seeing things and it's fun to debate early early adopters. Just look at this thread! - Robert Scoble

Robert, I was early adopter on GReader, then got bored.. once we get the low downs on a new software then it becomes boring and (a) we look for other stuff elsewhere ; (b) create community around the S/w component or just (C) just drop the product / software - Peter Dawson

Unrelated question,sort of. Robert, why does your Twitter profile show friendfeed.com/scobleizer as your web page? - Kenton

Seriously? No one's even mentioned the fact that Twitter lists don't work for many of us? We don't have that feature available, and, what's more, when we try to view someone else's lists, we get a 404 error. Hmm. Google Reader works for everyone. Maybe that's why people are still using it. - DAMMIT, MR. NOODLE

I haven't explored much of the social interactions of GReader. If I comment on or like someone's shared feed, it's most likely through FriendFeed. I don't see myself using Twitter for what I use GReader. - Arlan K.

"No one's even mentioned the fact that Twitter lists don't work for many of us?" - LISTS are still in pvt beta mode only. - Peter Dawson

Exactly my point, Peter. - DAMMIT, MR. NOODLE

Kenton: FriendFeed is still the best aggregator in the business. That's why. - Robert Scoble

Curtiss: that's why I specifically called out Louis. He has access to the new list feature. So, it will be interesting to see if it changes his view of Google Reader. - Robert Scoble

Arlan: I think you will, especially when you see lists. I have a list of just major news brands, for instance, and it's a better RSS reader than Google Reader is except if you want full text feeds. - Robert Scoble

Of course many people want full text feeds. I get very irked at partial or headline-only RSS feeds, they usually get booted from my Reader subs. Twitter, with or without lists, has different purposes and different use cases than Google Reader. - Tinfoil 2.0

omg. UNFOLLOW - Joel Bennett

LogEx: I used to be like that but then I freed my mind and got over the full text stuff. Mostly because Google Reader got to be VERY SLOW for me. - Robert Scoble

Joel: see ya! - Robert Scoble

Joel: people who unfollow just because they disagree just seem to be weak souls to me and I'd rather not hang around someone so weak. So, have a good one! - Robert Scoble

Google Reader isn't a good social tool now, but it's the best tool for me for getting feeds from many sites, many of which are not represented on Twitter. - Tinfoil 2.0

It's already done. You've stopped providing valuable previews of cool stuff and are now providing nothing but silly arguments about why x is better than y - Joel Bennett

I didn't unfollow ya because I disagree with you (I *never* thought Google Reader was interesting), I unfollowed you because lately your signal:noise ratio is the wrong way up. - Joel Bennett

Joel: bullshit you are wrong. http://www.kyte.tv/scobleizer is where I show off Twitter lists just this afternoon. - Robert Scoble

Joel: and over on http://scobleizer.blip.tv you'll see me talking to PayPal about their new functionality (among many other companies). - Robert Scoble

Twitter Lists. I don't even have them yet, and I'm already tired of hearing about them :-p - Joel Bennett

Well Robert, maybe I'm just following you in the wrong place. - Joel Bennett

Joel: and over on http://www.building43.com I have a ton of videos where I show off new things and new ideas. Tomorrow Tapulous, who has the #1 iPhone app. - Robert Scoble

Robert, Tapulous has my kids' favorite iPhone game - Jesse Stay

Joel: all this stuff comes to my FriendFeed account at http://www.friendfeed.com/scoblei... (only one out of about 1,000 things I bring in there is negative). Oh, and the best value stuff is my Favorites: http://twitter.com/scoblei... -- no noise there. - Robert Scoble

Joel: I just went to your account and all I see is noise, no signal. So? Should I unfollow? No. Because personally noise is important. - Robert Scoble

Heh, follow, don't follow - either way, makes no difference to me: I'm no social media "influencer," just a plain old dev. I follow people for news or because I know them, and I post to share or converse... - Joel Bennett

I'll just put you on my noisy dorks list who threaten to unfollow because they are too lazy to look for the signal that obviously is there in the first place. ;-) - Robert Scoble

It wasn't a threat, it was a done deal :-P Maybe it was lazy. Maybe it was just annoyance at the way this whole dead-not-dead crap is burying all the signal on FriendFeed lately. - Joel Bennett

Robert. I just watched your kyte video. Good Q&A. I see how the lists can generate interesting metadata about people and sources, leading to a new "authority" race. To be fair how ever, I think that delicious has a lot of the similar metadata/tag information/count when it comes to sources. Do you mashable vs techcrunch comparison on delicious and you will see. So I guess you are right that this is a good development and a *much* better approach to solving the emboarding problem than the default list they had. I do not think that they will kill anyone as a result however! - Edwin Khodabakchian

Robert, this is fun watching and listening to you about the Twitter Lists but actually without being able to make a list, it's like a carrot... http://www.kyte.tv/scobleizer - Myrna

OK, so, I looked over your feed ... and I've realized that YOU don't actually cause the noise, per-se ... it's just that lately, the stuff that seems like noise to me are the ones that get bumped over and over with likes and comments from people defending FF against ya. Maybe I need to find a client that doesn't show the "bump" effect. - Joel Bennett

Yup, he causes it alright, measured reaction ensues - sofarsoShawn ~presque...

Joel: that's called Twitter. OK, I'm outta here now! Running... - Robert Scoble

Robert: maybe GReader is slow because you are attempting to feed too much into it? Funny, I have been a bloglines lover for a long time and finally 'got' GReader only to be told it's dead. Say it ain't so! :) - Sheryl

Sheryl: I feed a LOT more into Twitter and it is a lot faster than Google Reader. - Robert Scoble

I don't agree Robert. Google reader fills a need for some people when it comes to consuming content. This is not saying that Twitter isn't a good consumption too. - Seth Goldstein