So Google Reader is closing down. Quickly getting the denial, anger and bargaining out of the way, which service will you switch to?
I’ve started an open* spreadsheet so you can add the alternatives you know of, and look at the features of others. (This worked particularly well when Delicious was being sold)
You can also vote for your preferred service here.
*After 24 hours I had to restrict access to the spreadsheet and restore an earlier version after 20 rows were deleted. The sheet is now available for editing by request.
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Google will shut down their RSS Reader service. This may break many nicely working pipelines for news readers (Apps and people), but their is one much more important aspect behind it. Google Reader will be shut down because less people use RSS these days, and as a consequence RSS will get even less important. On the other hand CURATED news services and apps gain popularity. What this ultimately means is that other people decide what you should read and not you. RSS feeds reflected your personal choice of news sources. Curated news aggregators deliver the news that other people or algorithms will find adequate. This scares me.
I guess it’s another sign of the web and social media becoming more mainstream. I don’t think this is the death of RSS but rather it becomes a more specialist tool (which I guess it was anyway, given users have been early adopters).
Yeah, I think RSS was always a specialist tool. Those for whom Twitter has replaced RSS reading certainly weren’t using it in the same way I am.
It never made the mainstream, so Google wasn’t interested. Hopefully, that means some specialist developers will pick up the market opportunity and run with it, but the transition phase could be painful.
I would like suggest another alternatives to google reader.
Unlike ordinary RSS-readers, LikeHack (http://likehack.com) adds links from your Facebook and Twitter feeds, and also provides two kinds of custom filters to eliminate whole topics by keywords and exclude instagram photos and other media from your feed. It makes also all links you shared searchable.
We have launched recently and glad to invite you to test!
Please add it to the spreadsheet!
Had forgotten about Netvibes, will see how they have progressed. Feedly does work nicely, but depends on the workflow/ease of management…
Here’s a crowdsourced list of alternatives to Google Reader. Feel free to vote/comment and suggest additions.
http://list.ly/list/33u-google-reader-rss-reader-alternatives-crowdsourced-list
PS I tried the spreadsheet link and it said “servers busy”
I got that too for a moment. Suggests it’s very busy, or Google Docs is having problems.
The spreadsheet is very helpful, thanks. But I wish the features were a little more broken down. For instance, what’s important to me is something like the gReader List view (no image-heavy displays, and a single column), and the ability to show feeds with the oldest items first. The second appears to be the sticking point for almost everyone.
Thanks – you could always add a column for that (I’m looking for that feature too). You’ll need to request access now as I’ve protected it.
Yanobs Reader is a great alternative to Google Reader, as it is really simple to use, yet very effective ! Here is the address : http://yanobs.com/reader
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Trying to add my favorite NewsBlur to the spreadsheet, but it’s showing as View Only so I can’t edit it. What am I doing wrong?
Ah, sorry – I had to protect it after someone deleted most of the rows (I reverted to that version). Will add you as an editor.
Hello Paul,
Nice list, I just saw that http://www.feedsAPI.org is missing on the list and wanted to add it but can’t edit it, would you please add it ? Or is there a way fro me to edit the list ? Thanks
I’ll add it – thanks.
I wanted to add WordPress.com Reader to the list, but looks like spreadsheet is protected.
Yes, I had to close edits. But have added you as an editor now so you can add.
I need offline reading with a good cache. Any suggestions?
None at the moment – still playing, and a lot are still relying on Reader (e.g. Feedly)
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Hi Paul,
Would like to to get Skim.Me (http://skim.me) added to the list. We’ll be releasing our replacement for Reader (and for iGoogle too as a matter of fact) in April to help people keep up at a glance. Love for some folks to check us out.
Best,
Clint
Will add it. Have also sent an invite request – looks interesting, especially given some people want the simple list view of feeds (including me)
@rwc – Try SharpReader. It’s old but still works on Win 7. Haven’t tried it on Win 8. It’s my main reader with a good cache. I was using GR as my backup. (By exporting the opml file once in awhile.)
I use
It’s hosting Tiny Tiny RSS, an Open Source Reader that looks like Google Reader. All the basics plugins are included (share to Facebook, twitter, different themes, …) It’s free so it’s worh a try
I’ll use Feedstripes, the best alternative with one click migration + social popularity meter (toplists, trending topics etc.)
http://www.feedstripes.com/about/
This week the Reeder app put up a notice saying they will work with Feedbin ( http://feedbin.me ) as a Google Reader replacement. It’s a paid service (only $20 p/y). Didn’t try it yet but it looks interesting, think it should be added to the list. Thanks!
Thanks – will add that in!
http://www.commafeed.com/
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