Today, June 30th, is the last day of Google Reader availability. If you completely ignored all the noise around the matter, run quickly, export and backup your feeds. Tomorrow Google Reader will be no more.
Of course, I’ve been on a quest for the Google Reader alternative. Of course, I found plenty. And, of course, none of them are exactly the same. I’ve decided to stick with Bazqux, and I’ve paid my yearly subscription fee a few month ago.
It’s also worth mentioning that a lot of work went into many of the alternatives over the last months, as more and more people started looking for the new RSS home. Some of that work was quite noticeable. For example, Feedly changed in the last 100 days so much that I had to re-evaluate it completely. And, also, new services were introduced – such as Digg Reader.
Still, with all that, it’s sad to see Google Reader go. I’ve used it every single day and relied heavily on it for years. Paraphrasing the classic quote: so long, and thanks for all the feeds.
It won’t be missed.
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That’s a bad idea, really. The moment Google goes like “meh”, just find an alternative and forget about Google’s product. This has always worked fine for me and saved me from lots of disappointment and awkward moments.
Google Reader raised a bar of what an RSS reader is. Simply forgetting this isn’t a good idea. Especially, when none of the other alternatives have reached it yet.
Feedly is almost there, I’ve been using it for almost two months. Reader was good, but about 2 years ago it became apparent Google wasn’t going to develop it any further and it was just a matter of time before they shut it down.
I tried Feedly three month ago, and then for the last couple of weeks. For me, interface-wise, they aren’t even close. Too much “design”. Things floating up and expanding, etc. This looks cool, but is really annoying for a lot of RSS reading (again, for me). Also, some of the most useful things aren’t there yet. Like being able to switch the item as read/unread and see what’s the status of it now.
It’s improving. The latest expanding/shrinking stuff looks cool but is annoying though :(