Google Reader is useful, reliable service that suffered from shameful neglect - Chicago Sun-Times

Excerpt from an Andy Ihnatko Google Reader perspective

"The only answer that comes to mind is that Reader doesn’t include any opportunities for advertising, which is Google’s main business. Worse, Reader encourages users of the Web to view site content in this (usually) ad-free environment, instead of visiting the originating webpages. The only remaining upside of Google Reader for the company would have been as a mechanism for learning about a user’s reading habits, preferences, and community connections. But they’re canceling Reader, so it couldn’t have been terribly valuable, and Google+ already fulfills the function of Harvester Of Personalized Social Graph Data."

Google Reader is useful, reliable service that suffered from shameful neglect - Chicago Sun-Times