Thursday, March 14, 2013

Well. This sucks.

So many of you are getting the news today about Google Reader.
Google plans to sunset the application in July 2013.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-second-spring-of-cleaning.html
http://support.google.com/reader/answer/3028851
http://googlereader.blogspot.com/

And this for exporting your data.
http://www.dataliberation.org/google/reader

I am not sure what I will do about reading blogs, I have grown rather attached to Reader.
I suppose there are many other cross-platform solutions, so I suppose I better start looking.

So what do you all use to read your blogs with?  I am on multiple computers and OSes.

ETA: Here are some ones I am looking at.
http://www.bloglines.com/
http://theoldreader.com/
http://www.newsblur.com/
http://likehack.com/

14 comments:

  1. It's crushing ...

    CNet posted this: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-57574201-233/google-reader-is-dying-but-we-have-five-worthy-alternatives/

    But feedly was serving a 503 with a Guru mediation error from the Varnish cache. Which caused some concerns as well as a flash back to the days I owned an Amiga.

    Not looking forward to this transition.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was choking on the irony that Google is shutting down Reader due to not enough users, yet every other RSS feed I looked into last night was crashing due to the amount of hits they were taking...

    Still not sure which one I'll use yet, but I may wait it out a bit to see which feed ends up on top.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Since I have to switch I might as well find one with social media features too.

      Delete
  3. I just use the native feed in Blogger to read blogs. And for my tablet I use Pulse, which is an awesome blog reader application--also, it's now got a web interface which could use some cleanup, but works very well.

    So yeah. http://www.pulse.me/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pulse looks good. I knew there had to be other apps.

      Delete
  4. My struggle with some of them (e.g. Pulse) is I don't understand the revenue model. At least with Google I know I was (am) selling what they glean from watching me.

    The others aren't so clear.

    The Old Reader looked good, but it's beta and same thing. I need to use it in a browser on multiple machines and on a couple of Android devices is important. As is tying into G+ since that's the other place a lot of my gaming follows live.

    Some changes I love, this is not one of them.

    ReplyDelete
  5. There's a good discussion of some options here: http://lifehacker.com/5990456/google-reader-is-getting-shut-down-here-are-the-best-alternatives

    Me, I think I'm going to go with Feed Demon (link in that article), and disconnect my newsreader from my browser.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm testing Feedly right now. It was tough to get working, since all the servers for this (and other services) are getting slammed by desparate people.

    Feedly actually relies on Google Reader, as do many other of the web-based and stand-alone readers. But I noticed Feedly has announced a seamless transition for when Google Reader goes away.

    I'm contemplating Gnus as a backup, but that's only because I used Gnus before back in the day.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I read blogs the old fashioned way... by reading the blog. Some I have book marked, some I follow through blogger, and others I stumble across now and again.

    Works for me.

    ReplyDelete
  8. @Lasgunpacker: I've got 267 blogs I follow, according to Feedly. Granted, some of those I believe went defunct and others are spotty, but I usually see posts from at least 30 blogs a day. I shudder at the thought of trying to follow that many blogs with bookmarks and random browsing.

    ReplyDelete
  9. @Lasgunpacker, that is what I used to do, but now I have close to 400 blogs I follow now, so all those bookmarks are a bit much.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I hadn't heard about this, but with my limited computer access of late I've been missing a lot.

    I know a few folks that will really be bummed if "Reader" goes.


    Lee
    Tossing It Out
    An A to Z Co-host blog

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hmm this is going to take some thinking. I'm on mac, windows, and android so this is definitely going to really be a pain in the butt!

    ReplyDelete

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