A moment of silence is due for Google Reader. On March 13th, the sobering announcement of the upcoming demise of Google Reader hit us all hard. For those not familiar, Google Reader is a “content application and platform provided by Google that is an aggregator of content served by web feeds.” It is basically a customizable one-stop shop that collects updates (RSS feeds) from all your favorite blogs and websites in an easy-to-read format.
Google Reader has been our public relations/social media team’s resource, nay, dear companion to keep abreast of trends in various client fields, generate relevant fodder for social media accounts, and be just generally in-the-know.
Google’s reasoning for depriving us was declining usage. They were generous enough to give a healthy three and a half month advance warning, and while that lessens the sting, it still leaves us looking for a replacement. So whether you use Google Reader for marketing, social media, or to keep on top of the newest photos of grumpy cats, read on for reviews of some top contenders for replacement.
Feedly
Feedly has been getting a lot of been getting a lot of praise and is considered by many to be the front runner. It is easy to use and would probably be crowned queen in a reader beauty pageant. You can also customize (like Google Reader) how you view your newsfeeds and at the moment, you can seamlessly integrate your current Google Reader feeds into Feedly. There have been concerns with Feedly’s future as it uses Google Reader as its backend. However, Feedly is apparently on top of this and is developing something called “Normandy”, which is a “clone of the Google Reader API.” (API stands for application programming interface, essentially how different types of software communicate.) Feedly looks good and could definitely serve as a Google Reader replacement, but if for some reason Normandy fails, you could lose all of your feeds when Google Reader goes offline.
Netnewswire
Netnewswire is available only on Macs, which is unfortunate for PC users because it is a pretty good reader (which quickly imports your Google Reader feeds). More utilitarian than Feedly, Netnewswire basically looks like your standard email inbox. You can put it in your dock, so it’s easy to access, which is a nice feature. The free version does have ads, which I am personally fine with, but if that bothers someone, a $15 annual payment gets you an ad-free version.
Newsblur
Functional, imports easily from Google Reader, and has a variety of viewing options. My only qualm with NewsBlur is that you can only have 64 feeds in the free version. That may not be a deal breaker for someone using it to follow a few sports blogs, but for me, that is nowhere near enough. The paid version is quite inexpensive, but with so many free options, and nothing that makes Newsblur stand above the rest, why pay?
Digg
Digg doesn’t actually have a reader yet, but they’ve promised one. They have even gone so far as to put up a countdown timer for when Google Reader shuts down. Digg is kind of a big deal so my expectation is that their reader will be formidable.
Other options
From my research I would also like to mention that Fever and Netvibes have recently started to receive positive attention as possible reader replacements. If you’d like to review all 53 reader options out there, check out this in-depth Google Doc. Another option could be refining your Twitter lists to work as mini readers themselves.
The sad reality: there is no perfect replacement for our beloved reader. I am hopeful that one of the above services will (eventually) fill the void, or even perhaps that Google will heed our cries of despair….
Related articles
Farewell, Dear Google Reader (The New Yorker)
