Google Reader is disappearing in just a few days. Here are some alternatives as you search for your own personal replacement! Please be sure to either use Google Takeout to export your data and/or import your data into a new service by July 1. If you don’t follow blogs via RSS, it saves you so much time and all the information comes right to you. It astonishes me that people go site to site or only read through email! It is so worth a try!
Bloglovin’
Bloglovin will automatically import the blogs you read into your Bloglovin account. You can follow MommySplurge on Bloglovin! Bloglovin can be read in your browser or in their daily email. If I read only a few feeds, this would be my reader of choice. It is definitely superior to getting 50 emails from all the blogs that ask you to sign up for their email (guilty! I when I do a giveaway I am trying to remember that most folks, including myself, like to follow via RSS only one way). I actually do scan through my daily Bloglovin’ email because there are a lot of feeds I subscribe to (other bloggers who also follow me) that I may not read every post of but I like to get the highlights. I think it’s a great adjunct to a real news reader.
Feedly
Feedly is more of a magazine type RSS reader. There are apps for your mobile devices and you can import your Google Reader subscriptions directly. Feedly recently announced that a whole slew of standalone readers (which I personally prefer) will sync up with Feedly. At first I found the user interface difficult to use, but I am old and cranky. Then I discovered there are a ton of settings and I am just loving Feedly.
The Old Reader
I tried out The Old Reader and at first I liked the Old Reader the best, because it performs just like Google Reader did in its’ prime! You can import your subscriptions directly. There aren’t a lot of customizations to perform. You can follow your friends on the Old Reader and create your own feed of starred items (just like the old Google Reader… before they messed it up two years ago!). I had performance issues with The Old Reader but for light reading you might enjoy it.
Decide on your Google Reader Replacement!
Decide on something (anything!) besides Google Reader, because it will go away JULY FIRST and take your subscription list with it. Use Google Takeout to get your data and store it on your hard drive – the development and performance of new services is really unproven yet and you will want to be able to take your data and use it wherever you go.
Comments
For news reading, you can also use http://www.hinto.co
It’s a highly visual desktop web app that allows you to select which websites contents to keep up with.