GOOGLE HAS ANNOUNCED it is to shut down its Google Reader service because of declining interest in the RSS feed.

The product has been in operation since 2005 and allowed people to discover and keep tabs on their favourite websites.

Google acknowledged there was “a loyal following” for the service but said “over the years usage has declined” and on July 1, 2013 Google Reader will be retired.

In addition to closing Reader, from next week on they are also ending support for the Google Voice App for Blackberry and have recommend use of HTML5 app, which Google says is more secure and easier for them “to keep up to date”.

Other services to close include Google Building Maker and Google Cloud Connect. They are also deprecating their Search API for Shopping, which has enabled developers to create shopping apps based on Google’s Product Search data and they will no longer sell or provide updates for Snapseed Desktop for Macintosh and Windows.

It comes following a number of closure announcements during a “second spring cleaning” by Google. It brings the total number of features or services closed to 70 since their spring cleaning began in 2011.

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