An urgent appeal for help from Menzies House Managing Editor Tim Andrews:
As some of you who have read my posts on this previously may be aware, one of the key online programs that allows Menzies House to function as well as it does, and allows us to source the best material from around the world, is Google Reader. This is an amazing and brilliant program for all - but especially for those of us interested in politics, and it is directly responsible for much of the content you read on our website. I can not stress enough just how integral Google Reader is for the the day to day functioning of Menzies House and for us providing you with the not only original posts, but links to the best stories from around the world (for those of you who don't know what Google Reader is, here is a short synopsis, that, whilst written from a personal not professional perspective, I think captures it best).
Last week, without any consultation with its users, Google decided to effectivly kill Google Reader as of later this week, and force everyone to use its social networking site, Google Plus, in its stead. Google Plus shall not have any of the features that make Reader work so well, and a cynic might say that this is simply an act to try to force people to use Google's failing social network.
Either way, this is something that shall hurt us at Menzies House incredibly, and, considering it is high-intensity users like us that, whilst small in numbers overall, make up the bulk of the power that makes Google profitable, is a financially irresponsible move by Google - that they need to recognise.
At this point - because I really am in panic mode about what this shall do to us at Menzies house - I need your help to try to reach out to Google and tell them just how bad what they are doing is.
I have already helped organise a bipartisan protest outside the Washington DC Google Office for this Wednesday, so if you are around the DC area PLEASE attend, but, as most of our readers (rather obviously - this is an Australian site after all!) are not, you can do at least these three things:
1)RSVP to the event anyway as a show of support
2) Sign this petition
3) Email Google Plus and tweet as many of their accounts as you can find to express your concern
And then - if you have contacts at google, if you are on G+, if there is anything else you can do to help bring these concerns to the attention of the Google Management, then it would be appreciate.
I recognise they are a private company and are able to do what they wish, and I do not deny them this, however, this is an ill thought out decision that shall both hurt Google in the long term - as they shall lose a valuable user base out of it, and shall (more importantly) seriously hurt us at Menzies House.
Many thanks,
Tim Andrews
Managing Editor
