If you haven’t heard, Google (“do no evil”) is shutting down Google Reader, among other apps on July 1. Speaking for many colleagues, Google Reader was an integral part of my social and news gathering process. I have SEVERAL apps (mobile, traditional, etc.) that use Google Reader as the aggregation back end and it begs the question, what is my alternative.
Until I find the next best thing, I am compiling a list of alternatives that I will begin evaluating and sharing feedback here. Also worth noting, I am not including “desktop” applications in my search. FeedDemon is probably one of the best here for Windows.
NOTE: My search started out great, but due to an overwhelming amount of people looking for alternatives, most of these sites are not working appropriately any more. Check back in the next day or so.
News Blur – http://www.newsblur.com/
Limitations in free account (only 64 sites is not going to cut it for me). However, I haven’t hit that limit yet and have found the site very intuitive and gives me a near Google Reader experience. Haven’t found any apps that support this (Windows specifically). For now, this is my tool.
Feedly – http://www.feedly.com/
Great – only that it is Firefox add-in, iOS/Android only. Seems to be VERY popular on Twitter as an alternative. When I load the add-in, it still asks me for a Google account. It appears to be importing my feeds, which is ok now…but after Google Reader goes away, curious what the experience will be like. The interface is slick and appears to offer me a comparable experience. No Windows apps, but for others this won’t be as much of a problem.
Good Noows – http://goodnoows.com/
Simple, slick user interface. Allows for Google Reader OPML import. Several options to customize the layout of the page. Good list of sources to pick from. Doesn’t appear to have any mobile app support, but the browser experience on my Surface is not bad.
Q. Sensei Feedbooster – http://feeds.qsensei.com/home.html
Could not create an account. Navigating the site was awkward. Seemed like I was logged in, but couldn’t click on anything, could not login, manage feeds, etc.
The Old Reader – http://theoldreader.com/
Looks promising. However, (no surprise) they are throttling their imports. It also appears that they do not support tagging.
Netvibes – http://www.netvibes.com/en
Looks great – but pricing seems outrageous. Logged in with Facebook and am working on adding content. Doesn’t appear to be a Google Reader or OPML import feature. It seems overly complex in comparison to Google Reader. There appears to be an API, but my guess is that not many apps will support this.
