Settling in with Feedy as Google Reader Alternative

I know lots of folks are giving up on RSS readers now that Google is pulling the plug (any day now) on Google Reader. I’m still a regular reader of my feeds, though, and while I did not use Google Reader itself, the apps and sites (including Reeder on my Mac and Mr. Reader on my iPad) that I use tapped into Google Reader (a complicated business that I don’t quite understand well enough to even try to explain). Since the news came out about the death of Google Reader, I’ve been trying to figure out: what now?

I’ve tried out about a half-dozen RSS readers in the last few weeks, and it may be because we settle into routines so easily or something else, but none of them felt right to me. I have decided for now to use Feedly on my computers and am still alternating between Feedly and Mr. Reader on my iPad. (I was happy to see that Feedly allows other services to use its code, just as Google did for other apps, and so I was able to export and import my RSS feeds into Feedly and then set up Mr. Reader to borrow it from Feedly — which sounds like a big shell game, doesn’t it?).

Feedly has a nice feel and design flow to it. The migration of data from Google to Feedly was painless.  I didn’t like it when I thought it was only a browser add-on, but the recent shift to a cloud-based web reader has me hooked. And the reader seems nice and quick. I am sure I will be fine. I have to admit, though, the whole experience had me reflecting on the value of reading my RSS and I determined that I still gain a lot of knowledge, connections and insights from the folks I follow, and I am not quite ready to give that up, even though Twitter and other places cover a lot of the same ground.

From my early days with Bloglines to my shift to Google Reader, and then into Reeder and Mr. Reader,  and now into Feedly, my habits as a reader of RSS continue to evolve, and all of this reminds me that so much of the technology and tools that we take for granted (reading RSS in the morning over coffee, for example) in the hands of others, and if they (Google) want to kill a useful tool, there’s little we can do about it (unless you know how to build your own reader. I don’t)

Peace (in the feeds),
Kevin

 

5 Comments
  1. I have settled in with my new account at Bloglovin’. I too tried a number of other tools but when I got to Bloglovin’, it quickly added my Google Reader blogs, and saw the easy interface for reading and marking up the blogs, I knew it was a comfortable spot for me.
    And isn’t it remarkable to have a replacement up and running before the (gasp!) shutdown of GR.

  2. I have the same setup. Migrated to Feedly once it seemed like they were the ones closest to developing their own syncing service for other apps. I was so glad when Mr. Reader updated to include Feedly syncing so that I could continue using it, because it really is the best!

  3. Like many long time Google Reader users, I have been going through RSS withdrawal. I decided to go cold turkey and stopped using G Reader 2 months ago. As a substitute I read Google +. Some of the same people who I followed on Reader are posting on Google + so I still have access to their wisdom. I tried Netvibes for a while, but the UI sucks and visually I could not stand it. I do like Feedly and just setup the new Digg Reader. Going cold turkey seems to have worked because today is just another day.

    • It does seem like one of those reflective moments, Jim — Am I still getting value from a tech tool? I decided yes, but I suspect many others may say no.

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