By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. It’s Not Just Reader: Google Kills Chrome RSS Add-On Too
Scott Gilbertson, WebMonkey, March 18, 2013
Those of you who were using Chrome because it was new and cool - well, you may want to rethink. "The company has also killed off its RSS extension for Chrome, and marked a longstanding bug requestingthat the extension become a native part of Chrome as 'Won’t Fix.' Add it all up and it certainly looks like Google wants to not just shut down an unprofitable service, but to kill off its support for RSS entirely." Why would this be, you might ask. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. RIP Google Reader: Don’t Scream Who Moved My Cheese, Pivot Your Reading
Beth Kanter, Beth's Blog, March 18, 2013
A lot of people have been expressing this sentiment over the last few days - Google Reader is over, it was a nice free service while it lasted, but it's done, so let's move on. Which is fair enough and quite right: non of us had any right to expect Google Reader to continue forever. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Coursera composition course
Laura Gibbs, Google+, March 22, 2013
I have said in the past that the xMOOCs like those offered by Coursera will need to become more like connectivist courses over time. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. New Adblock Plus Doesn’t Need No Stinking Google Play Store
Scott Gilbertson, WebMonkey, March 22, 2013
What bothers me is that I was enjoying my new Android phone and gushing over its features, and then Google has to go all anti-competitive what with shutting down Reader, opposing RSS, and of course kicking the very useful Ad Blocker off the play store. More...