Wednesday, March 20, 2013

6 Free Google Reader Alternatives

As you may have heard, Google Reader will be closing its doors on July 1st, 2013. Those of us who use and depend on RSS feeds are scrambling for alternatives. I've selected six that are web based that have (mostly) apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android.
The first thing you'll want to do is to download all your feeds. You can do this within Google Reader, but Google Takeout makes it much easier and you can get all your Google data at the same time.
Here's a step by step guide to downloading your Google data:
How to Download Your Data with Google Takeout
At the time of this writing bunches of people have signed up for RSS readers. Some of the sites are having a hard time keeping up with the traffic. They may not be reachable due to server overload and all features may change or not be available. I think a few more days should see things settling down quite a bit. If you find one that's down temporarily, give it some time and then check back.
Net Vibes
The granddaddy of them all, Netvibes is a combination start page and RSS reader. It’s highly customizable with a wealth of features from changing the colors and themes to a large selection of items in several categories you can add to your page. You can add pages (shown on the top of the page as tabs) for various interests. News, gardening, politics, travel, technology and more things you may want to add.
If you have a lot of feeds be aware that the amount of feeds should not exceed 150/200 feeds/widgets per private dashboard for optimum use. Directions for importing feeds can be found in the site blog. There are versions for smartphones available on iPad, iPhone and Android. It has a reader view, an offline mode.
Register for free account to use.
NewsBlur
Free account allows up to 12 sites
Supports Web, iPhone, iPad, and Android
This site has seen the most changes over the last 24 hours, from no free accounts, to limited free accounts, changing the amount of feeds with a free account, and increased the price for premium accounts. This site has seen more down time than others. Since this is a single person operation there will be a few ups and downs.
If you are having trouble accessing the main site, give this one a try.
http://dev.newsblur.com/
Free to try, free registration, free and premium accounts
Feedly
Web based, supports iPhone, iPad, and Android with addons for Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Kindle.
Login to feedly using your Google account. Feedly will automatically sync your Google Reader account.
Feedly is building a clone of the Google API called Normandy. It will be in place before Google Reader and all accounts will smoothly transition at that time.
Pulse
"Pulse is a fast and beautiful way to read your favorite blogs, magazines, social networks and newspapers."
Magazine style interface.
Free registration using Facebook or Email
Direct import of RSS feeds from Google Reader
"Bringing the Fun in Reading Back. A beautifully crafted experience that puts content at its heart. Read, save & share your favorite stories."
Bloglines
(Yes, Bloglines. It's been resurrected from the old version)
Google Reader import feature
Free registration uses email address
Web and mobile versions
"Welcome to the all new Bloglines, the best resource for local blogs, news, and events."
The Old Reader
“Just like the old google reader, only better. Import your subscriptions in one click, find your Facebook friends and start sharing.”
Import your feeds directly from your Google Reader account or use our OPML import feature.
Registration requires Facebook or Google account.
No mobile as yet, but sports a mobile friendly interface.

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