The Ephemerality of the Web

This week, two services that I’ve used for years announced that they will enter the web’s graveyard: Pocket and Glitch.

The news about Pocket hit me hard. I purchased Pocket when it was known as Read It Later, way back in March 2011 (and I was probably a free user well before that). Since then it’s become an important part of my daily routine. In the morning I peruse my feeds in Feedly, saving anything I don’t have time to read fully in Pocket. In the evening I open Pocket to catch up on those articles I saved for later. With Pocket approaching it’s sunset, I have to evaluate replacements. I’m starting with Readwise Reader (which could potentially also replace Feedly, depending on how much I like it), and follow up with Instapaper. Crossing fingers 🤞 that I can find something I like as much as Pocket.

Glitch coming to an end saddens me, though not quite as much as Pocket’s demise. I use Glitch for one purpose: to host my Wordle Leaderboard project. Since I play Wordle daily, I guess it’s also party of my daily routine, but my history is also backed up in my email so I don’t think I will miss it as much. I’ve wanted to rewrite that project for years anyway, this just gives me extra motivation to do so.

This reminds just how ephemeral the web is. Apps and services die all the time. Google is famous for its wanton destruction of products, including some of my favorites in Google Reader, Nexus 7, Google Hangouts. Anytime something dies, the process of finding a suitable replacement is exhausting. I can’t count how many times I’ve had to do it.

Pouring one out for Pocket, Glitch, and all that came before.