RIP, Google Reader. Google's March 2013 product cancellation summary.

<b>This QuickTip is about Google's March 2013 (spring for them) product retirements, and how they affect Blogger users.</b><br /><br /><a name="more"></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_PU7Vj7d4VOpQN_8DH5JBRBuEXtI2mYy09XjWYngPyRusB-eDJVolUkU7SH32FXLP0pJDXAtGBJrNPSNkoAuuXijUxNhQoPZWYzveiibL9S5IZnlhu0hZSXQPyxFgFuiK6XzJNujDJfwV/s217/quick-tips-blogger-hints-and-tips.png.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /><img alt="quick-tips logo" border="0" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_PU7Vj7d4VOpQN_8DH5JBRBuEXtI2mYy09XjWYngPyRusB-eDJVolUkU7SH32FXLP0pJDXAtGBJrNPSNkoAuuXijUxNhQoPZWYzveiibL9S5IZnlhu0hZSXQPyxFgFuiK6XzJNujDJfwV/s217/quick-tips-blogger-hints-and-tips.png.png" title="Quick tips for Blogger Users - especially about how Blogger works with other popular tools" width="200" /></a></div><br />For a while, every time the season changes Google have announced a set of product retirements. This quarter's announcement is just out, and you can find it <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/a-second-spring-of-cleaning.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br /><br />In short, the changes are:<br /><ul><li>Apps Script will stop supporting <b>GUI Builder and five UiApp widgets</b> from September 16, 2013.</li></ul><ul><li><b>CalDAV API</b> only be available to whitelisted developers, from September 16, 2013. Us Google Calendar's API, instead.</li></ul><ul><li>Google <b>Building Maker</b> will be retired on June 1 2013.</li></ul><ul><li>Google <b>Cloud Connect</b> won't be available from April 30 (use Google Drive's desktop app instead).</li></ul><ul><li><b>Google Reader</b> stops working on July 1, 2013, Export your subscriptions and use another company's RSS feed-reader. (No recommendations given)</li></ul><ul><li>The <b>Google Voice App for Blackberry</b> won't be supported from next week. (Use Google's HTML5 app with Blackberry version 6 and over instead.)</li></ul><ul><li>The <b>Search API for Shopping</b>, is depricated now and will be turned off on September 16, 2013.</li></ul><ul><li><b>Snapseed Desktop (Macintosh and Windows)</b> is no longer available for purchase. Existing customers can still download the software and ask for support. (No alternatives recommended, the Snapseed mobile app on iOS and Android is still available free.)</li></ul><br />As far as I can see, none of these will have a big impact on people as they use Blogger to maintain their blogs.<br /><br />But personally I will miss Google-reader: I use it to keep up with the many blogger-helpers that I read, in order to stay on top of what's happening with Blogger overall and to spot areas that need more investigation.<br /><br />And it worries me that Google are no longer offering a human-useable RSS-feed-reader (ref <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/08/why-rss-subscribe-to-posts-is-important.html">What is RSS and why does it matter for bloggers?</a>).   Does it make it more-likely that Google will shut down Feedburner in the future? That would hurt a lot of Blogger-users.<br /><br /><br /><br /><h2>Wanted: a Google-reader replacement</h2><br />Many bloggers, including me, will be looking for a replacement feed-reader. <br /><br />Recommendations welcome, please leave a comment below!<br /><br />

RIP, Google Reader. Google's March 2013 product cancellation summary.

This QuickTip is about Google's March 2013 (spring for them) product retirements, and how they affect Blogger users. For a while, every ...

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Google product cancellations for December 2012

<b>This quick-tip is about Google's winter 2012 product cancellations, which<br />appear to have less impact on most Blogger users than their recent seasonal purges.</b><br /><br /><a name="more"></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_PU7Vj7d4VOpQN_8DH5JBRBuEXtI2mYy09XjWYngPyRusB-eDJVolUkU7SH32FXLP0pJDXAtGBJrNPSNkoAuuXijUxNhQoPZWYzveiibL9S5IZnlhu0hZSXQPyxFgFuiK6XzJNujDJfwV/s217/quick-tips-blogger-hints-and-tips.png.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /><img border="0" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_PU7Vj7d4VOpQN_8DH5JBRBuEXtI2mYy09XjWYngPyRusB-eDJVolUkU7SH32FXLP0pJDXAtGBJrNPSNkoAuuXijUxNhQoPZWYzveiibL9S5IZnlhu0hZSXQPyxFgFuiK6XzJNujDJfwV/s217/quick-tips-blogger-hints-and-tips.png.png" width="200" /></a></div>Today, Google have announced <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.ie/2012/12/winter-cleaning.html" target="_blank">their next round of discontinued products</a> - they used to call it "spring cleaning", but this time around have at least acknowledged that it's winter for half the world, and summer for the other half!<br /><br /><b>Some Google Calendar features</b> are to be discontinued, specifically:<br /><ul><li>Creating new reservable times on a Calendar using Appointments Smart Rescheduler</li><li>Add gadget by URL.</li><li>Check your calendar via SMS/text message</li><li>Create event via SMS/text message (GVENT).</li></ul><br />My guess is that this may affect some Blogger users, who have integrated a calendar with a blog. It's a fairly specialist area, so likely to be a small number.<br /><br />There are a few other discontinued features, but I suspect they won't affect bloggers to much extent:<br /><ul><li>Google Sync a tool giving access to Google Mail, Calendar and Contacts via Microsoft Exchange's ActiveSync protocol - discontinued, except for Google Apps for Business, Government and Education.</li><li>Google Calendar Sync</li><li>Google Sync for Nokia S60</li><li>SyncML, a contacts sync service used by some older mobile devices.</li></ul><ul><li>Issue Tracker Data API: a tool that lets client applications view and update issues on Project Hosting on Google Code via API feeds.</li></ul><ul><li>Punchd an app that keeps loyalty cards on smartphones</li></ul>

Google product cancellations for December 2012

This quick-tip is about Google's winter 2012 product cancellations, which appear to have less impact on most Blogger users than their re...

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