The news that Google is pulling the plug on Google Reader has been quite the bummer. Unlike Google Buzz, Google Wave, and iGoogle, Reader actually seems to be popular and well-liked. At the time Google made the announcement, Reader was easily the leading product at what it did. But I guess those numbers still don't translate to it being a success for Google. That's too bad, because I don't know of any more efficient way to consume my news than via a cloud-based RSS reader linked to my Google account. (I mean, I still visit the Yahoo! homepage every day, but that's more of a boondoggle than a legitimate exercise to keep myself informed.)
I suppose, given all the outcry on the blogosphere, it's possible Google might change its mind, but, for now, I've switched to Feedly, which seems to be the most popular alternative (and since an RSS reader is for practical use and not for cool cred, I'm not really interested in digging around to see what hip, obscure options are out there; just point me to what works). It's cloud-based, I can log into it with my Google account, and it sports a much more attractive magazine-style layout than Google Reader, while also allowing users to set it to a more spartan list of article titles only, which is how I had Reader set up. On the downside, it's kind of buggy, much of the interface and functionality doesn't seem well-thought-out (I keep accidentally "marking all as read," when what I mean to do is click on one of my feeds to the left), and the Android app is slow and confusing. Also, there doesn't seem to be any way to look up info for a feed I'm already subscribed to, in case I want to check the feed URL (or in case, say, I want to check the statistics to see how many other people are subscribed to my own blog's feed).
*sigh* I kind of wish they were shutting down Google+ instead. Does anybody really use that, other than Jeri Ryan? (Well, okay, I would occasionally use the "share via Google+" feature within Google Reader, but obviously that's not gonna happen anymore.)
1 comment:
I have the same issue. I really like the iOS feedly app, though.
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