I’ve been searching for information about Google Reader’s API and came across some older blog posts from 2005. They suggested that some Google staff hinted at the possibility of official documentation being released soon. During that time, there were some unofficial methods to use the API, but no formal documentation from Google.
I’m curious if Google ever provided official public documentation for the Google Reader API before it was shut down. Did they create any resources or guides for developers? I’ve looked around but haven’t found clear details on whether this was ever offered or if it remained undocumented during its operation.
Can anyone confirm if an official API was released, or did developers have to depend on reverse engineering and unofficial sources?
yeah, they never bothered with official docs. back in 2012 i spent forever trying to build a mobile reader app and had to use sketchy unofficial api endpoints i found on random blogs. google completely ignored the dev community - pretty typical for them back then.
Nope, Google never released official API docs for Reader. The service ran for eight years without any developer resources, so everyone had to reverse engineer everything. What made it worse was Google would randomly change endpoints or auth methods without warning, breaking third-party apps constantly. I spent way too much time in 2009 wrestling with an unofficial Python library someone built by watching network traffic. The auth was a total nightmare - we had to fake browser login sessions. This hacky approach worked okay for basic stuff like pulling feeds and marking items read, but anything complex was nearly impossible. Google’s refusal to document the API basically killed Reader’s ecosystem and probably helped seal its fate.
Google never released official API docs for Google Reader during its entire run from 2005 to 2013. They kept everything internal and undocumented, which was incredibly frustrating for developers wanting to build apps around it. All we had were reverse-engineered solutions and unofficial docs that the community pieced together through trial and error. I remember working on a feed project in 2011 and having to dig through GitHub repos and forum posts just to find endpoints people had discovered. This lack of official API support was a constant complaint about Google Reader. When they shut it down, it became even more obvious as developers scrambled to migrate to alternatives like Feedly and The Old Reader that actually had proper API documentation.