This morning when I fired up my web browser my homepage popped up.

Except it didn’t.

My homepage, you see, has been Google Reader – the RSS-based web aggregator that pulls all my RSS subscriptions and Google alerts into one handy feed. While Twitter has in many ways surpassed Google Reader over the last few years in terms of timeliness and usefulness, I still held out an affinity for the service. I guess I’m just kind of old school.

But this morning, instead of my feed, I got a simple message from “The Google Reader team”:

Google Reader has been discontinued. We want to thank all our loyal fans. We understand you may not agree with this decision, but we hope you’ll come to love these alternatives as much as you loved Reader.

Sincerely,

The Google Reader team

This comes as no real surprise, of course. The demise of Google Reader – set for July 1 – was announced in March. We all had plenty of time to come to terms with it. Still, seeing the site disappear this morning left me with some amount sadness.

Being the helpful folks they are, “The Google Reader team” provides a link to Google Reader alternatives. Will I take the time to delve into some of the options, like Feedly, the Old Reader, NewsBlur or RSSOwl? I’m not sure. I might just spend even more time on Twitter now.

But, for those who want it, the list of Google Reader alternatives can be found here.

It’s a brave new world we live in.