Yes, I’m officially behind the times in posting this, but whatever.
I remember the old days, back when I bookmarked all the blogs I loved and would click through all of them each day to see if there were any new posts. Tedious, but there wasn’t any other way! Once Google Reader came along, it revolutionized my blog reading, gathering all the new posts from my favorite blogs in one place. So easy and wonderful, and with the app on my smart phone, I could read new posts anywhere I wanted!
When I read the news that Google Reader would be shutting down on July 1st, I’m pretty sure I gasped audibly. But it turns out the tech world reacts pretty quickly to this stuff, so within minutes I’d also read several different posts about alternatives to Reader — like Feedly, Bloglovin’, and NewsBlur, to name a few — all very eager to make it easy for Google Reader users to make the transition to their services.
In the end, I decided to go with Feedly, which is a browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, as well as a smart phone app for both Android and iPhone. At the moment, Feedly syncs seamlessly with Google Reader, so I didn’t have to do anything other than download the extension/app and sign in to Reader. Easy as that, Feedly maintained all of my previous subscriptions and folders, and once Reader is gone, my subscriptions will still be accessible via Feedly. I also like Feedly’s stylish interface, which lets me choose between a more visual “magazine” layout or the traditional Google Reader list without images.
In any case, the point of this post is less about Feedly and more about encouraging you to transition to another RSS reader of your choice before the lights go out at Google Reader. Don’t lose all your blog subscriptions — that would be so sad, wouldn’t it? I am especially, of course, looking straight at all 30+ of you subscribed to this blog via Reader! (Another alternative would be to receive each new post by e-mail, which you can do here.)
Are you a fan of Google Reader? Have your already made the switch over to a new service? Or decided which one you’ll use?
Yeah, I’m still bummed about that too. I’ve also chosen Feedly and I do like the way it looks. Will take some getting used to as far as keyboard shortcuts and everything. I’m still mostly using Google Reader for now and will have to learn to use the new one at some point.
Yeah, it took me a few weeks to get up the motivation to make the move. I have to say I like the mobile interface a bit better than the desktop one, but both work just fine and were pretty easy to adapt too.
I made the switch from Reader to Feedly without much pain. That’s saying something for me who dislikes change that I don’t initiate. I highly recommend Feedly.
Hey Dad, I know what you mean! I probably would have otherwise stayed on Google Reader forever since it got the job done. But the change over has been relatively painless and probably a good one in the end. :)
I decided to go with NetVibes for 4 reasons:
a) I’d used it BEFORE Google Reader earlier this century, so it wasn’t all that new to me
b) it feels more like Google Reader and various supporting apps like ByLine and MobileRSS to me than Feedly-the-app did (keyboard shortcuts I know and love for navigating through long lists — j to move down, k to move up, plus plenty of other useful ones)
c) Feedly the app isn’t great on my phone — which might well be my phone’s fault
d) I didn’t want to rely on browser extensions to read my stuff — browsers are updating themselves all the time (Firefox v.20 now, Chromium on Linux v.25) and extensions sometimes break when that happens. And I won’t have those extensions on other people’s computers, or necessarily on the 4 computers on which I surf in my own apartment.
No matter what you switch to in preparation for the post-Google-Reader era — what the heck is Google thinking in mothballing Reader? I don’t get it.
Hey Cliff, yeah, having it a browser extension definitely made me think twice. I’d rather have it be web-based, but in the end, they won me over. I also totally don’t get why they need to trash Google Reader — even if they stopped investing resources in improving and updating the program, millions of people would still continue using it! Keine Ahnung…
I’m trying Feedly, but am not super into it yet. For one thing I haven’t figured out a good way to unsubscribe from blogs on there. I also don’t like that it’s an extension. I really hate that Reader is going away – it was my third-most-visited site so I was a heavy user. I liked its simplicity.
You’re right, unsubscribing does take a few more clicks than I would like. If you find something else that you like, let me know!