RIP Google Reader

Google announced that it’s killing off Google Reader effective July 1, 2013. Reader was Google’s web-based program that let people subscribe to news feeds from their favorite sites. That’s a shame, because Reader was pretty great...

So what now? How will you keep up with your favorite bloggers?

Don't panic!

Here are six alternatives:

Bloglovin

That's the one I decided to go with. I've been using it for the past couple of weeks and really like it. Bloglovin’ is a great alternative to Google Reader, especially if you like to read blog posts on the blogs themselves, rather than reading the full text inside of a reader. The layout is clean and minimalistic, taking design elements from both Tumblr and Twitter. A list of your blog and groups are shown on the left sidebar with the main section reserved for a Tumblr’esque browsing experience showing the latest posts from the blogs you follow. Blogs can be organized into groups which essentially create easy to access folders. You can "like" a post a read it at a later time if you wish.

The Old Reader

It was built to be a suitable replacement for Google Reader. You can log in via Google or Facebook, and import your feeds from Google Reader. If the interface looks familiar, it should: it looks a lot like Google Reader, complete with folders down the left side, your list of stories in the main pane, and one-click subscription to new feeds. You get many of the same keyboard shortcuts, and even get the same ability to follow other Old Reader users and share interesting stories with them. Fast, free, and super simple to use.

NewsBlur

NewsBlur was one of the first services people suggested when the Google Reader announcement came down. NewsBlur has a really well built interface that's also similar to Google Reader, but with some useful bells and whistles that make reading a bit more fun or easy on the eyes. You can share stories with friends, save them for future reading, star them, start your own "blurblog" of featured stories you want to share, and more.

Feedly

In addition to having a rich news suggestion algorithm that makes it easy to surface articles that you'll find interesting, it's a rich social tool that lets you share stories with your friends and post them to your favorite social networks. Saving stories for future reading is easy, and Feedly offers layout choices that let you read the news in the manner you choose.

NetVibes

Signing up is quick and easy, and once you're set up, you can even use Netvibes as a bit of a dashboard/homepage replacement. Add widgets for weather, finance, and top news stories to your dashboard and you get a pretty useful homepage that also shows you the new stories from your favorite sites.

Pulse

You can easily save stories for later, share with friends, or just browse some of the more popular and trending stories, filter by category, and pick up where you left off on a new device without losing your place.

As you can see, lot's of alternatives to Google Reader. Remember to make your choice before July 1st!

And I hope you'll continue to

Source: Alan Henry

Cheers,

Patricia

http://www.etsy.com/shop/patriciawoodjewelry

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