I can't help but wonder how much of this is intentional sabotage on the part of Google vs how much of it is just RSS itself dying because people don't really like it. The opinions on HN likely don't mirror those of the average person. I support RSS, but it seems a simple mailing list subscription is both technically and functionally superior. The article itself admits that Google benefits from RSS because it helps with indexing. I don't see why Google would be invested in "killing" RSS, how they would benefit from it dying, or how their actions have actually contributed to it's death. This all just seems very conspiratorial to me. The simplest explanation to this is that most people don't really get what RSS is and would rather not use it when email is available and all the content they want is on Facebook anyway.