Google has a long history of introducing, then forgetting about, and finally officially killing off its products. Most recently, that included Google Spaces, a service that most of us never knew existed to begin with. Let's take a tour of some of our favourite services Google's killed off over the years.

As the countdown to Google Reader closing ticks over, we're continuing to see alternative ways to manage your RSS feeds. Lifehacker reader Michael rolled his own solution with Blogtrottr, creating a system that sends notifications direct to your email.

New alternatives to Google Reader appear to be profliferating as we await the July 1 cut-off for Google's much-loved-but-definitely-departing RSS reader. Business content curation service Curata has launched a limited beta for its own Reader replacement, which it plans to release in May.

An RSS reader is an essential tool for anyone who likes to be kept abreast of news as it happens and/or updates from their favourite websites. It will make you more organised, ensure you don't miss valuable information and save lots of time that would otherwise be spent manually checking websites. If you're new to RSS, here's what you need to know, including the best RSS readers in a post Google Reader world.

Yes, Google Reader is going away, and yes, there are great alternatives. However, if you're tired of web services shutting down on you, why not take matters into your own hands? Tiny Tiny RSS is a free, open-source syncing RSS platform with more features than Google Reader ever had, and it can't get shut down. Here's how to install it and set it up.

Another sign to remind us that Google Reader will be dead come July 1: some browsers are reporting that the link to Reader on Google's menu has vanished when using Gmail.

Chrome: With the death of Google Reader, a number of people are jumping ship to popular alternatives such as Feedly, NewsBlur and OldReader. RSS Subscription Extension is an extension that makes adding RSS feeds to those readers a breeze.

Firefox/Chrome: If you're a heavy Google Reader user, you may well have dozens of articles starred and feeds organised into folders or categories. This simple userscript lets you filter all of those feeds by folder, whether the article is starred, by keyword, or by author or blog so you can quickly bookmark them or save them elsewhere.

We're all seriously bummed about Google Reader shutting down. However, while its departure does leave a big RSS-shaped hole in the universe, there are others news reading apps and services out there stepping up to replace it with syncing features and easy import tools to keep you organised. In this week's Hive Five, we're going to highlight five of the best, based on your nominations.

Just how many people will be impacted when Google Reader shuts down? Google itself isn't saying, but Google Operating System has crunched some of the relevant numbers.

I don't use Google Apps for Business, I don't require extra storage, and I don't need to pay to advertise myself or my company through AdWords. Most of the ways Google wants to extract money from me directly are never going to work. Yet if Google started offering Reader for an annual subscription fee, I'd pay in a heartbeat.

Google's decision to shut down Google Reader means you'll need to find a new way to get your news fix. Here are our favourite alternatives.

With the news that Google is killing off Reader, dedicated Reader enthusiasts will want to make a copy of their existing subscriptions so they can use them once they pick an alternative. Here's what to do.

No, that's not a misprint. Google has announced that Google Reader is being discontinued from July 1. Our favourite RSS reader is being dumped because Google says not enough people use the product. The fools!

Google was built by geeky programmers, and geeky programmers have a great sense of humour. For evidence, look no further than the weird range of bonus features hidden in Google's search and other products.

Chrome only: Notifier extension One Number checks for unread messages in Gmail, Wave and Google Reader and displays the unread count right on the Google Chrome toolbar.

Windows only: Portable application NFReader is a no-frills feed reader that fits on your thumb drive. Even though it eschews a wide feature set in favour of a tiny footprint and minimalist interface, NFReader has the basics covered. Import your subscription list via OPML files or manually add feeds in the reader. View individual articles in either basic text or HTML format. If you're looking for an absolutely spartan feedreader without any clutter or feature bloat, NFReader's for you. NFReader is a free download for Windows only.

NFReader