Google Reader, RIP

That great engine of blog consumption is officially dead. But you won’t find Ezra Klein consulting Slate‘s handy flowchart for a replacement; he realizes that Reader reinforced his “filter bubble“:

I’m going back to bookmarks — and other people’s curation. I’m bookmarking a few of my favorite blogs, and then bookmarking a few news outlets and magazines, and a few socially curated sites (like Digg and Reddit), and a few more idiosyncratically curated sites (like LongReads.com and Byliner). My hope is to combine enough different forms of curation that I break out of my habits and regularly see content I wouldn’t have known to look for. … Google Reader, you’ve been great. I’ve loved our time together. But maybe this is for the best.

Glenn Reynolds won’t miss Reader either. Matt Buchanan is betting on Digg to deliver:

Everybody consumes the Web differently, so it’s hard to imagine a single reading service that works for every person. But it seems reasonable to think that one combining a person’s deep and abiding interests with the serendipity of social media could work for most. Digg may well be in the best position to accomplish this. It has a Web site, which surfaces new material from the around the Web, and the Reader, which provides a comprehensive view of a user’s favorite Web sites. In addition, Betaworks, its parent company, recently purchased the “read later” service Instapaper, which allows users to save Web articles they come across to access later on their mobile devices. And Digg is just one of a number of companies striving to figure out a better answer to, “What should I read now?” Google Reader may be gone, but there’s never been a better time to read on the Web.

The Dish, for its part, will rely upon a combination of NewsBlur, Tiny Tiny RSS, Fever, and that great RSS reader that is the Dish in-tray.