The once popular Bloglines RSS feed reader service will be shutting down on October 1st. I used the service regularly for a couple of years to keep up with numerous industry and personal interest websites. Over the last couple of years though I just seemed to slowly abandon it. It looks as though I was not alone.
The current operators of the service at ask.com noted that the major uptick in the usage of services like Twitter and Facebook have destroyed usage of feed aggregation services. I think it makes total sense for users to make this move. While feed readers are very helpful they still require you to define specific RSS feeds to be pulled in. Social networks are different in that you can subscribe to feeds (if published through sites like Twitter) but also get individual articles from relevant users and brands you wish to follow. These services also allow for you to comment on the material and easily share it again with your followers and friends.
So while I am saddened that Bloglines will be going offline, I am thankful for the time we spent together.
