Never was and never will be linked to Google Reader; Clean, minimal, and works perfectly on your mobile device; The Old Reader. The Old Reader will keep you from missing Google Reader much, since the service’s interface matches that of the old version of Google Reader itself, complete with the features to mimic it.
- The Google Reader is still in beta, but it’s got some slick features. This screencast runs through the basic features. The interface is a little offbeat, but so is Gmail – right?
- It’s old news now that Google Reader is being shut down on July 1st. It’s also old news that finding the perfect news reading apps for your Mac and iPhone is a bit harder than you’d think at first.
- Google Reader will be gone soon and the faster you start looking for ways to move on, the better. It isn’t going to be easy though; scores of developers have created apps or services that integrate and sync with Google Reader.
Because I write about technology, people tend to ask me for tech advice. So ever since Google’s heartbreaking announcement that it was closing down Google Reader—and the newsfeed syncing APIs that went along with—folks have asked me what my news reading plan is post Reader’s demise.
I love RSS; I’ve used NetNewsWire since its launch, and I use Reeder for iPad and iPhone. All three apps stay in sync via Google Reader’s API, and they’ve worked together in beautiful harmony for years. And now Google’s ruining everything by killing a beloved (though likely unprofitable) service. So when people ask me what my plan is for RSS after Google, my answer is simple: denial, denial, denial.
Google Reader shuts down July 1. A million newsreaders will cry out, no longer able to sync their feeds across multiple devices. Those who relied on Google Reader’s Web interface will similarly find themselves stuck up the news creek without a reader. Denial’s gotten me this far, but it’s time to move on.
There are options. I don’t love any of them, yet. But perhaps I can learn to.
Export business
Many services can import your Google Reader subscriptions. But listen—and this is important--the time to export your Google Reader subscriptions is now. Don’t wait. If you haven’t exported them yet, do so before July 1 rolls around. If you use an app like NetNewsWire, you can use its Export OPML options. Otherwise, head over to Google Takeout, and re-enter your password if prompted. Click the Choose Services tab, and then find Reader in the alphabetical list. Then click Create Archive, wait a minute or three, and click Download to grab the completed archive.
There are several companies aiming to replace Google Reader both as Web services and as backend APIs for third-party apps to connect to. Some of the companies are huge—we’ll get to them in a bit. In some ways, though, I’m more intrigued by the little guys entering the space. That may be because Google, one of the biggest big guys, just left me high and dry. So let’s start smaller.
Young upstarts
Feedly, FeedHQ, Feedbin, Feed Wrangler, Fever, and BazQux Reader are all smaller companies looking to usurp Google Reader’s old place in our hearts and software. (BazQux clearly didn’t get the “start name with F” memo.)
Different apps work with different services. Reeder for iPhone (not the iPad version) currently works with Feedbin and Fever. Mr. Reader supports every service mentioned above on the iPad. As Google Reader’s demise gets closer, expect more apps to announce support for new services.
Feedly is free. To me, that’s a knock against it. If Google—Google!—couldn’t figure out a way to monetize this kind of service, I’m not sure anyone can. It doesn’t help that I’m no fan of Feedly’s interface on the Web: I basically want something that looks like NetNewsWire, and Feedly isn’t it. To its credit, the service does support a slew of keyboard shortcuts, handles folders well, and uses a clean layout—just one that doesn’t work for me. Besides the aforementioned Mr. Reader, you can use the Newsify app with Feedly; that offers a pleasant enough browsing experience on iOS, but leaves you without a great reading solution on your Mac.
FeedHQ, on the other hand, charges money—$12 per year. That semblance of a business model goes in the pro column. But the open-source service’s plain-Jane interface would disappoint even a hardcore Linux-lover. There’s decent, omnipresent keyboard control, but no current folder support, mangled timestamps, and other problems. While it ostensibly works, it’s hard to recommend.
Feedbin charges, too; it costs $2 per month, or $20 per year. It’s the first Web service I tried that I felt I could make work. Your folders become tags in Feedbin’s parlance, and there are plenty of settings to tweak how the Web app organizes and sorts your feeds. The keyboard shortcuts are plentiful, and include excellent arrow key support, which warms my heart. There’s built-in Readability integration, so if a site’s RSS feed doesn’t include the complete article, you can click a button to load the rest of the story in many cases. Keyboard shortcuts let you open the current story in another tab, including an option (Shift-V) to open that tab in the background. Feedbin isn’t a desktop client, but it’s working hard to feel awfully close. I like that. Sometimes, though, it can feel a little slow on the Web: Marking as read takes a couple of extra beats; the article preview pane can’t keep up as you’re navigating through your feed source list. But Feedbin is certainly a service that gives me hope for our Google Readerless future.
Feed Wrangler costs $19 per year, and seemed promising at first. That rate includes free access to apps that the company offers for iOS, and an upcoming app the service says it will offer for the Mac. But I had trouble with the service. There was no confirmation when I paid the $19 subscription fee, and I never received a receipt. The service choked repeatedly on importing my feeds, and doesn’t seem to offer a way to view all of my feeds in a single list—though that may be because it refuses to import them. It doesn’t seem to handle folders. And the Web interface, like FeedHQ’s, feels sorely lacking.
Fever costs $30 and is yours to own forever—but you need to host it yourself. It’s a PHP- and MySQL-based Web engine for managing RSS feeds. It scores bonus points for its novel approach: The software aims to distinguish between “essential” and “supplemental” feeds, and tries to promote the most topical (in other words, “hottest”—get it?) stories to you first. I bought Fever back in March, when Google announced it was killing Reader, and I tried to get into it, but it’s not quite for me. While Fever does well with folders, it doesn’t do great with individual feeds kept outside of folders—such feeds don’t appear in Fever’s sidebar, though you can find their content in Fever’s Hot and Kindling sections.
That said, if you have the technical smarts to get the service installed, it’s not a bad option: The three-paneled Web interface is highly usable; the keyboard support is good; Fever will continue to work for a good long time; and third-party apps can (if they so choose) connect to it. I appreciate that I have it in my back pocket should everything else fail.
BazQux Reader looks a lot like Google Reader on the Web. And it works pretty well, with a variety of customizable views. The service costs either $9, $19, or $29 per year; you choose which price you want to pay. The keyboard support is okay, but not great; there’s no arrow key option. Overall, BazQux is okay, if unpronounceable, but its faithfulness to Google Reader’s interface is misspent on me: I was never a fan of Google Reader on the Web. If you were, though, BazQux is worth a close look.
There are other smaller services to explore, too. NewsBlur has its proponents, but I found its Web UI just didn’t work for me at all.
Big guys
Google taketh away, and now Digg and AOL are giveth-ing us readers of their own. The nascent Digg Reader isn’t bad, but its newness shines through. It uses Google Reader-style keyboard shortcuts, has no arrow key support, can’t open links in the background, and has some other quirks. Digg Reader also just released a companion iOS app. The iOS app shows even more promise than the Web app, and is a pleasure to use.
If you liked Google Reader on the Web, there’s a lot to like with Digg Reader. Despite the fact that it’s in its infancy and feels a little slow, it works, it’s usable, and Digg clearly knows what it’s doing. Digg is providing a healthy dose of optimism, and if third-parties start integrating with the service à la Google Reader, things could get very interesting.
AOL Reader actually feels a bit more polished than Digg’s take today. You can toggle across a variety of views: List, Card, Full, and Pane, the last of which is exceedingly NetNewsWire-esque. There are no iOS apps involved yet, but AOL Reader works acceptably—with occasionally too-small tapping targets—in Safari on those devices. Keyboard navigation is again Google Reader-ish, with a sad lack of arrow key control. If there’s a way to move from articles back to the source list using the keyboard, I haven’t found it.
Still, while it’s lovely that big companies like AOL and Digg are interested in filling the RSS void, remember my concerns from the outset: They’re offering these new services for free, just like Google did. You don’t want to get hooked on either service and have it follow Google Reader all the way into the Internet graveyard.
Whether AOL or Digg Reader will prove viable in the long-term depends on a lot of factors. Digg’s involvement probably makes a little more sense than AOL’s; the analytics the company can gather (and potentially monetize) fit right in with the data it can gather from Instapaper and the main Digg website, all of which fall under the same parent company. But really, for either service to prove a hit, it will need to grow quickly, become a popular syncing option, and work reliably. None of those things is assured.
To its credit, Digg says it plans to start charging for some additional features, in a freemium model. Digg hasn’t said yet what it will charge for, beyond stressing that the currently available feature set will remain free.
So what to do
Kindle reader mac os. Until Wednesday, my friend and colleague Dan Frakes had a monstrous Frankenstein-level plan, involving using NetNewsWire—sans sync—on his Mac, and Reeder for iOS on both his iPhone and iPad, with Feedbin as the backend. (Neither the iPad nor Mac versions of Reeder have been updated to support Feedbin. And, personally, the Mac version of Reeder isn’t for me; I cling to NetNewsWire’s tabs.)
On Wednesday, a significant update to Mr. Reader added support for many services, so now Dan can run a native iPad app to sync with Feedbin and stick with Reeder on his iPhone. He still plans to use NetNewsWire without sync on his Mac, but that seems less than ideal to me.
Driver reader for mac dwonloader free. So I’m going to follow partway in his footsteps. Feedbin has become my favorite option behind the scenes, and today—with a heavy heart—I removed NetNewsWire from my Dock and my Login Items. In its place is a Fluid app pointing to Feedbin, complete with an unread items count badge. My plan is to rely on the Fluid app until someone makes a great Mac app with a Feedbin backend. And like Dan, I’ll use Reeder on the iPhone, and Mr. Reader on the iPad, all of which will remain in sync thanks to Feedbin.
I’ll miss Google Reader’s backend, and I’ll miss NetNewsWire. But at least I won’t miss the news.
Google Ebook Reader For Mac
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We're all seriously bummed about Google Reader shutting down, but it's not the end of the world, and there are a number of great news reading apps and services out there stepping up to replace it with syncing features and easy import tools to keep you organized. This week we're going to look at five of the best, based on your nominations.
Google Reader Is Shutting Down; Here Are the Best Alternatives
Google is closing Google Reader's doors on July 1st, meaning you'll need to find a new…
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Earlier in the week, we asked you which service you thought was the best replacement for Google Reader, taking into account that the service you nominated needed to be as close to Google Reader's feature set (syncing, multi-platform, web-accessible) as possible. You weighed in with tons of nominations—far more great alternatives than we could possibly feature here. Still, some stood out above the others and picked up more nominations. Let's take a look.
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The Old Reader
The Old Reader may be in beta, but it was built to be a suitable replacement for Google Reader. And not just Google Reader as we know it now, the old Google Reader, that still had plenty of tools for sharing and organization. You can log in via Google or Facebook, and import your feeds from Google Reader or any other service via OPML. If the interface looks familiar, it should: it looks a lot like Google Reader, complete with folders down the left side, your list of stories in the main pane (click any to read), and one-click subscription to new feeds. You get many of the same keyboard shortcuts, and even get the same ability to follow other Old Reader users and share interesting stories with them—the way you used to be able to with Google Reader. The Old Reader is fast, free, and super simple to use. There are no mobile apps yet, but the web site works well on mobile devices, and the developers behind it note they're working on it. There are, however, Chrome and Safari extensions for it.
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NewsBlur
NewsBlur was one of the first services people suggested when the Google Reader announcement came down. NewsBlur has a really well built interface that's also similar to Google Reader, but with some useful bells and whistles that make reading a bit more fun or easy on the eyes. For example, you can toggle the original view and display articles the way they show up on their respective sites, or read them the way they're presented in their RSS feeds, or view them text-only to get rid of the images and the page fluff. You can share stories with friends, save them for future reading, star them, start your own 'blurblog' of featured stories you want to share, and more. If you like to keep up with news on the go, NewsBlur's iPhone, iPad, and Android apps will bring you the latest stories anywhere you are. Free accounts are capped at 64 blogs, 10 stories at a time, and public sharing options. Premium users ($24/yr) can subscribe to as many sites as they want, get all the latest stories at one time, get faster site refreshes, can share publicly or privately, and of course support the service. Sadly, if you don't already have a free account, you can't get one right now—due to high demand, they've temporarily stopped free users from signing up. Keep an eye out though, I'm sure they'll drop this restriction once demand dies down.
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Feedly
Feedly was one of your top choices in the Call for Contenders thread, and many of you used Feedly long before Google announced it was shuttering Reader. Feedly has long been one of your favorite RSS news readers and news aggregators. We've mentioned themseveral times as the service has grown and updated. In addition to having a rich news suggestion algorithm that makes it easy to surface articles that you'll find interesting, it's a rich social tool that lets you share stories with your friends and post them to your favorite social networks. Saving stories for future reading is easy, and Feedly offers layout choices that let you read the news in the manner you choose—whether it's straight headlines from top to bottom, full articles, neatly arranged tiles, or pretty images all laid out on a page. Best of all, Feedly has said that while right now they connect to Google Reader and sync with it, they're building a new syncing engine so Feedly users can seamlessly continue using the service long after Google Reader turns off the lights. Stay tuned for that. Feedly is less webapp as it is browser extension and mobile app: there are add-ons for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, and mobile apps for iOS and Android.
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Five Best RSS Newsreaders
![Google Reader For Mac Google Reader For Mac](/uploads/1/3/3/8/133897928/306538829.jpg)
Google's changes to Google Reader this week upset a lot of people, and it got us wondering how …
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NetVibes
Netvibes is actually a social aggregation and dashboarding service, but that doesn't stop it from being a robust RSS news reader. Basic accounts at Netvibes are free (note that Premium and Pro accounts are available but expensive—you don't need any of the services they offer just to read RSS feeds), and that's all you really need to keep track of your feeds. You can take the suggested feeds they start you off with, or you can import your own via OPML or subscribe to specific blogs by pasting in their URL. Signing up is quick and easy, and once you're set up, you can even use Netvibes as a bit of a dashboard/homepage replacement. Add widgets for weather, finance, and top news stories to your dashboard and you get a pretty useful homepage that also shows you the new stories from your favorite sites. Don't look for mobile apps in this case though—Netvibes doesn't have any. They do have a mobile site designed for smart and dumb phones alike (it auto-detects which one you're using and sends you to the right place.) It'll let you read the news, but it won't let you edit anything.
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Pulse
Pulse is only partially a syncing RSS reader—it relies heavily on its own news filtering algorithms to help you find the stories that they think you'll enjoy. You can use it as a way to just keep up on all the latest stories from the blogs you like to read, but when you nominated it as one of your favorite news aggregators, it was because it was great at lifting the interesting stories to the top. It departs from the traditional news reader UI for a more visual, tiled approach (similar to one of the views you can see in Feedly.) That said, Pulse does let you import your Google Reader feeds (via mobile-you can't do it on the web), and since they operate their own service, they'll handle the syncing and management for you—no external service required. Pulse offers a webapp and mobile apps for iOS and Android phones and tablets. You can easily save stories for later, share with friends, or just browse some of the more popular and trending stories, filter by category, and pick up where you left off on a new device without losing your place.
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There you have it, your five favorite Google Reader alternatives. Now it's time to decide the all-out winner.
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What's The Best Google Reader Alternative?Advertisement
Honorable mentions this week go out to TinyTinyRSS, a self-hosted RSS reading app that allows you to grab your feeds on any system, as long as you have a web host and you're comfortable installing and setting it up. The process actually isn't that difficult, and full disclosure, I'm thinking about doing this myself. Since there's a Tiny Tiny RSS Android client to go with it, it's worth a look. Plus, it's free and open source, and at the end of the day you own your feeds and your data, and it won't shut down on you.
We should also make full mention of the fact that Google Reader isn't going anywhere just yet! There are more petitions floating around to keep it alive than we can count, and (even if you believe in the efficacy of online petitions) it's worth keeping in mind that the RSS reader market is going to change a lot between now and July 1st, when Google Reader finally sunsets. Most popular apps will roll their own syncing agent and try to stay alive. Stay tuned, and watch to see if your favorite is planning something big. Reeder, our favorite news reader for Mac and iPhone/iPad, has already said they're working on something. Sadly, FeedDemon, our favorite for Windows, says the end of Google Reader is the end for them too.
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The Best News Reader for Mac
Reading a lot of blogs can be tough to manage without an RSS news reader, which consolidates…
Read more ReadYou guys nominated far more than we could possibly feature, so we'd love to hear more of your favorites in the discussions. Let us know which one you plan to use, or which company is prepping something interesting (maybe it's Digg's plans for a syncing news reader?) that you want to know more about. Remember, the top five are based on your most popular nominations from the call for contenders thread from earlier in the week. Don't just complain about the top five, let us know what your preferred alternative is—and make your case for it—in the discussions below.
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Remains of the Day: Digg Wants to Build the Next Google Reader
Mac Reader For Windows
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Read more ReadThe Hive Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, it's not because we hate it—it's because it didn't get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five. We understand it's a bit of a popularity contest, but if you have a favorite, we want to hear about it. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five? Send us an email at [email protected]!
Best Rss Reader For Mac
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