End Of An Era As IAC Pulls The Pin On Bloglines

The once great RSS reader Bloglines will close October 1 after owner IAC pulled the pin after years of neglecting the site.

Launched by Mark Fletcher in June 2003, Bloglines was the first online based RSS reader to truly capture the imagination and widespread use of the then new blogging world.

The then market leader was acquired by IAC (Ask.com) in February 2005, some eight months before the service that would eventually kill it off, Google Reader was launched.

The demise of Bloglines wasn’t immediate, and many (including myself) stuck with it for some time after Google Reader launched, however under the ownership of IAC it never once again put up a good fight on features, where as Google Reader continued to innovate.

In recent years, Bloglines was beset by regular downtime and an ever decreasing user base. We hailed a renewed interest in the service back in October 2008, however by this stage sadly the long term rot had set in.

As a former Bloglines user, and long term fan, thanks to the various Bloglines employees over the years who have tried their best with the service, and for introducing many of us to the joys of RSS reading those many years ago.

RIP Bloglines: 2003-2010.