Fan of Google Reader and RSS feeds in general? You’re going to love this. Not only has Google announced the demise of Google Reader, but they’ve also killed the RSS Subscription Chrome extension. It’s no longer in the Chrome Web Store.

TechCrunch reported on this after a few other noticed. The extension appears to still be working for those of us who have already downloaded it, but its landing page in the Store now presents an error message.

So, I guess it’s official. Google is not just ending a product it has no interest in running anymore. It simply doesn’t want us to use RSS. This doesn’t seem in line with Google’s stated mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible. They seem to be tossing that out the window a lot lately. Maybe it’s time to change it.

Here’s my rant about Google shutting down Reader, if you’re interested. This move almost seems like a spit in the face of users who are currently exploring alternatives.

It’s unclear exactly when Google pulled the extension.

Most sites with feeds offer their own subscribe buttons, so the loss of the extension is not a huge blow, but it’s still been a nice thing to have for a quick easy way to subscribe to new sites.