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Thursday, March 14, 2013

So long, and thanks for all the feeds

Don't panic.

Then again, I think fish is nice, but I also think Google isn't evil, so who am I to judge?

4 comments:

  1. Trying out feedly.com as a replacement. Works okay so far. Anyone have any other suggestions?

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  2. Lifehacker has an article that nominates the usual suspects:

    http://lifehacker.com/5990456/google-reader-is-getting-shut-down-here-are-the-best-alternatives

    The user comment outcry in favor of "The Old Reader" was a new one for me.

    The saddest part of this is that Google Reader is currently my main repository for websites that don't exist anymore but still have good information in them. Feed readers are a dime a dozen, but those cached copies are the real treasure.

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  3. Thanks, guys.

    BTW, Slashdot also has some recommendations here and here, for example.

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  4. If anyone is curious, I've been testing a number of contenders for the last several days. As near as I can tell, it comes down to a simple choice between Feedly and The Old Reader. Feedly has a distinct edge in being able to import my current feeds, including my starred articles. The Old Reader has an edge in having a layout that is more familiar to classic Reader. That being said, if you want the tl;dr version, Feedly seems to be the best choice.

    In fact, Feedly basically just authenticates using my Google credentials, thinks for a minute, and is good to go. Yes, I realize that's because really they're just sort of re-skinning Reader data, but it offers a painless way to try out their site. Also, since it's completely in sync with Reader, when I get tired of playing with Feedly and need a break, there's no downside to slipping back to Reader. FWIW, the Feedly folk swear they'll be reader with a clean cut-over come Reader's funeral (http://blog.feedly.com/2013/03/14/google-reader/)

    That being said, by digging through a couple of articles and settings (http://blog.feedly.com/2013/03/14/tips-for-google-reader-users-migrating-to-feedly/), I've already been able to get Feedly to present in a way that is fairly similar to classic Reader. Once I figure out if/how to get the feeds to be alphabetized rather than constantly re-sorting based on the number of unread articles, I'll be much happier. That's currently irritating me at the moment.

    Conversely, The Old Reader is currently being crushed beneath the load of new users. I've been told that I'm #43,000+ in a queue waiting to import my feeds. Yikes.

    Anyhow, that's where I'm at for now.

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