Google recently announced that it is withdrawing Google Reader. Much loved by internet junkies, the RSS reader is/was a free and easy way of keeping track of multiple websites and blogs in one central location, ensuring that no news piece, web comic or LOLCat pass unnoticed.
I have taken this simple little product for granted for years, and only realised the impact it has had on my daily routine now that it is on the way out! Browsing that used to take minutes will now consume far more minutes. Valuable time I could be using to brew tea or read books.
So I set out on a quest to find an acceptable replacement. My criteria: it must be as quick, it must be as beautiful, it must be as free.
One of the most frequently recommended alternatives is Feedly, with over 3,000,000 users transferring their Google Reader accounts in recent weeks. Available on iOS, Android and the web, it is a convenient anytime anywhere option. It doesn’t look terrible and it’s also free. Looking good so far. My only problem with this service is that none of the layout options are as seamless and quick-loading as Google Reader, and the default browsing mode does not separate posts into their parent sites/categories.
Newsblur has an interface very similar to Google Reader, looks clean and loads quickly. This would be an ideal option if you have less than 64 news feeds at any one time. More than that will incur a subscription fee of $1 p/m. Sorry Newsblur, you’re just too pricey!
The replacement I finally settled on is Bloglovin. The look is clean, and the main feed gives you a headline and first few lines of an article and sometimes a picture. I find this amount of information very useful for deciding which articles to fully commit to. Posts can be browsed either within their parent sites, or you can peruse top stories on the “front page”. The service is free and your subscription data can even be transferred from Google Reader in a matter of minutes.
Try out a few options before you fully commit yourself and find an RSS service that meets your needs. Just do it soon, Google Reader switches off for good on the 1st July!