Was corporate politics behind shutdown of Google Reader?

When it was announced in March of this year that news aggregator Google Reader was to be shut down, the internet was distraught. Cries of #SaveGoogleReader and “Wait, I was using that” rang out through Twitter. But to no avail – Google Reader went silent on the first of this month. At the time, Google honchos said on a blog that “declining usage” was behind the shutdown. Google said, “We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites. While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader. Users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with Google Takeout over the course of the next four months.” [caption id=“attachment_982967” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Larry Page in this file photo. AFP[/caption] But as a Buzzfeed article has pointed out, Reader was immensely popular amongst online trendsetters and power players – those who would start the daisy-chain of ‘sharing’ an article. Buzzfeed author Matthew Linley instead points to another reason for Reader’s demise – corporate politics. Sources close to the company told Buzzfeed that it was apparent that working on Reader was never going to get Page’s attention, the way that work on a larger project, such as Android, Chrome or Google Plus might. Google is headed by a team known as the ‘L Team’ (short for Larry’s team). It’s the most powerful group in the company, and includes stars such as social networking head Vic Gundotra and YouTube head Salar Kamangar. Google’s chief executive Larry Page meets with these top players regularly, and most of the bigger decisions come down to this group. According to the Buzzfeed article, this group did not view Reader as an important strategic asset. AllThingsD  pointed out that Google never put in the required energy to follow up on Reader’s initial popularity, and at the time of its closure, Reader’s team didn’t even have a product manager or a full time engineer. Read the full article here.