How Google helped destroy adoption of RSS feeds (2023)

谷歌是如何助力扼杀 RSS 订阅普及的 (2023)

Although RSS feeds are alive and still heavily used today, their level of adoption has suffered because of how difficult a handful of popular technology companies have made it to use them. Google, especially, has relied on the open web RSS protocol to gain so much market share and influence, but continues to engage in behavior that exploits the open web at the expense of its users. As a result, Google has single-handedly contributed to the reason many users who once relied on RSS feeds have stopped using them.

尽管 RSS 订阅在今天依然存在并被广泛使用，但由于少数几家主流科技公司人为地增加了使用难度，其普及程度已大打折扣。尤其是谷歌，它曾依赖开放的 RSS 网络协议获得了巨大的市场份额和影响力，却持续采取损害用户利益的行为来剥削开放网络。结果，谷歌凭一己之力，成为了许多曾经依赖 RSS 的用户放弃使用它的主要原因。

Below, we dive deeper into Google’s track record of what appears to be an Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish model. The company has continuously built and extended their products around the free and open RSS protocol to gain user trust, only to then remove RSS support once they’ve locked users in, and ignore any complaints or requests to restore it. Not only is it a blatant disregard for RSS and a huge disappointment to those who use it, it poses one of the biggest threats to the freedom and openness of the internet.

下面，我们将深入探讨谷歌在“拥抱、扩展、消灭”（Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish）模式上的过往记录。该公司不断围绕免费且开放的 RSS 协议构建和扩展其产品以获取用户信任，一旦用户被锁定，便移除 RSS 支持，并无视任何恢复该功能的投诉或请求。这不仅是对 RSS 的公然漠视，也让用户深感失望，更对互联网的自由与开放构成了巨大威胁。

Google removes RSS button from Chrome browser

谷歌从 Chrome 浏览器中移除 RSS 按钮

Early versions of Chromium (on which the Google Chrome browser is based) once came with RSS integration baked in. The browser had a built-in RSS button that would display in the browser location bar when any website you’re on had an RSS feed available. Clicking the button would then take you to the RSS feed for that web page, allowing a user to easily subscribe. Then, the RSS button disappeared without notice, and no reason was given for its removal.

早期版本的 Chromium（Google Chrome 浏览器的基础）曾内置了 RSS 集成功能。浏览器内置了一个 RSS 按钮，当你访问的网站提供 RSS 订阅源时，该按钮就会显示在地址栏中。点击该按钮即可跳转至网页的 RSS 订阅源，方便用户轻松订阅。后来，这个 RSS 按钮在没有任何通知的情况下消失了，谷歌也未给出移除理由。

Google acquires FeedBurner and limits RSS

谷歌收购 FeedBurner 并限制 RSS

In 2007, Google acquired FeedBurner, an RSS feed service that allows website owners to monetize their RSS feeds. FeedBurner works by replacing ordinary RSS feeds with private ones that only Google owns. The feeds are modified to include advertisements, affiliate links, and other tracking mechanisms like read counts, click-through rates and subscriber counts. The feeds are then used by FeedBurner users to track their readers and monetize from their behavior.

2007 年，谷歌收购了 FeedBurner，这是一项允许网站所有者将其 RSS 订阅源变现的服务。FeedBurner 的工作原理是将普通的 RSS 订阅源替换为仅由谷歌拥有的私有订阅源。这些订阅源会被修改，加入广告、联盟链接以及阅读量、点击率和订阅人数等追踪机制。随后，FeedBurner 用户利用这些订阅源来追踪读者并从其行为中获利。

After acquiring FeedBurner, Google shut down FeedBurner APIs in October 2012, which prevented developers from creating third-party RSS integrations to the service. Then, in July 2022, Google drastically changed FeedBurner’s infrastructure and operation model by removing most of the FeedBurner services that its RSS users depended on, which included email subscriptions. This left many people with non-working RSS feed URLs in their subscription emails with no way to fix them.

收购 FeedBurner 后，谷歌于 2012 年 10 月关闭了 FeedBurner API，阻止了开发者为该服务创建第三方 RSS 集成。随后，在 2022 年 7 月，谷歌大幅更改了 FeedBurner 的基础设施和运营模式，移除了 RSS 用户所依赖的大部分服务，包括电子邮件订阅。这导致许多人的订阅邮件中出现了失效的 RSS 链接，且无法修复。

Google shuts down Google Reader

谷歌关闭 Google Reader

Back in 2005, Google created Google Reader, a web-based RSS Reader application. It allowed you to add RSS feeds anywhere on the internet, organize them into folders in a clean, minimalistic interface. Then in 2013, after years of users relying on it for their RSS feeds, Google killed it.

早在 2005 年，谷歌就推出了 Google Reader，这是一款基于 Web 的 RSS 阅读器应用。它允许用户添加互联网上任何地方的 RSS 订阅源，并以简洁、极简的界面将其整理到文件夹中。然而在 2013 年，在用户依赖它多年之后，谷歌将其关闭了。

The reason Google gave for axing Google Reader was in an announcement where they claimed that “while the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined”. But an engineer, who worked for Google at the time, said “it felt like the entire time I was on the project, various people were trying to kill it.” Nevertheless, Google’s allegation of low usage didn’t instill a lot of user confidence in the viability of RSS feeds. Users were left with no RSS reader application, no comparable alternative, and no education from Google on how to continue using their RSS feeds without Google Reader. This led users to not only discontinue using Google Reader, but abandon RSS feeds altogether.

谷歌在公告中给出的关闭理由是：“尽管该产品拥有忠实用户群，但多年来使用率一直在下降”。然而，当时在谷歌工作的一名工程师表示：“在我参与该项目的整个过程中，感觉一直有人试图将其扼杀。”尽管如此，谷歌关于使用率低的说法并没有让用户对 RSS 订阅的生存能力产生信心。用户失去了 RSS 阅读器应用，没有可比的替代品，谷歌也没有提供关于如何在没有 Google Reader 的情况下继续使用 RSS 的指导。这导致用户不仅停止使用 Google Reader，甚至彻底放弃了 RSS 订阅。

Google removes RSS from Google Alerts

谷歌从 Google Alerts 中移除 RSS

Google Alerts is a service offered by Google that will notify you with an alert when there is new content on the web that matches a search term you specify. In October 2008, Google added the ability to receive Google Alerts in an RSS feed. But, in July 2013, Google decided to remove it, making email the only option to receive Google Alerts. A reason for the removal wasn’t clear, but the big, yellow banner on the top of every users’ Google Alert dashboard was. Eventually, after receiving backlash, Google reinstated the RSS feeds for Google Alerts. But by this time, many users already abandoned RSS feeds due to Google’s shut down of Google Reader (mentioned above), so the damage was already done.

Google Alerts 是谷歌提供的一项服务，当网络上出现与你指定的搜索词匹配的新内容时，它会向你发送提醒。2008 年 10 月，谷歌增加了通过 RSS 订阅接收 Google Alerts 的功能。但在 2013 年 7 月，谷歌决定将其移除，使电子邮件成为接收 Google Alerts 的唯一方式。移除的原因尚不明确，但每个用户 Google Alert 仪表板顶部那个巨大的黄色横幅却很显眼。最终，在遭到强烈反对后，谷歌恢复了 Google Alerts 的 RSS 订阅功能。但此时，许多用户由于谷歌关闭 Google Reader（如上所述）已经放弃了 RSS，损害已经造成。

Google kills its RSS browser extension

谷歌下架其 RSS 浏览器扩展

Google provided a Google Chrome extension that places a small RSS icon next to a website’s URL in the browser bar if you’re on a web page that has an RSS feed. Despite this extension being used, Google removed it. But then, after backlash, reinstated it within a week afterward, claiming it was removed by mistake. And while reinstating it was better than not, removing it was still a blow to user confidence in RSS feed usage overall. And if it’s true that it was done unintentionally, it still shows how little of a priority RSS has become to Google, despite how much RSS has contributed to the company’s growth.

谷歌曾提供过一款 Google Chrome 扩展程序，当你访问的网页包含 RSS 订阅源时，它会在浏览器地址栏的网址旁显示一个小 RSS 图标。尽管该扩展程序一直有人使用，谷歌还是将其下架了。但在遭到反对后，谷歌在一周内将其恢复，并声称是误删。虽然恢复总比没有好，但这一举动依然打击了用户对使用 RSS 的信心。即便这确实是无心之失，也足以说明 RSS 在谷歌眼中已不再重要，尽管 RSS 曾为该公司的成长做出过巨大贡献。

Google removes RSS integration from Google News

谷歌从 Google News 中移除 RSS 集成

In 2002, Google announced Google News, the company’s first media aggregation site, with the ability to add RSS feed URLs from all over the web. Then, after many RSS users were locked in and relying on the Google News app for their RSS feeds, Google deprecated RSS support, causing users’ RSS feeds to stop working. Then, Google shut down its RSS feed support entirely in December 2017. The company gave no reason for killing off support for RSS feeds in its Google News app. As a result, users had no choice but to find alternative RSS links for each feed they added to the Google News app.

2002 年，谷歌发布了 Google News，这是该公司首个媒体聚合网站，具备添加来自全网 RSS 订阅链接的功能。随后，在许多 RSS 用户被锁定并依赖 Google News 应用获取 RSS 内容后，谷歌弃用了 RSS 支持，导致用户的 RSS 订阅源失效。接着，谷歌在 2017 年 12 月彻底关闭了 RSS 订阅支持。该公司未就为何在 Google News 应用中取消 RSS 支持给出任何理由。结果，用户别无选择，只能为他们在 Google News 应用中添加的每一个订阅源寻找替代的 RSS 链接。