Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Goodbye, Google Reader

I just went to check my RSS feeds and learned that Google Reader will soon be shutting down:

We have just announced on the Official Google Blog that we will soon retire Google Reader (the actual date is July 1, 2013). We know Reader has a devoted following who will be very sad to see it go. We’re sad too.
Now what? Feedly?

7:27 p.m.: Yes, I think it’ll be Feedly.

10:02 p.m.: 12,000+ Orange Crate Art subscribers use Google Reader. What’s next for you?

[Where did I go when I “went” to check my RSS feeds?]

comments: 3

Berit said...

Goodness; I feel like I've never seen Google sunset a product people actually use!

I've just seen The Notice myself, and am shocked.

Feedly? Never heard of it, but will be checking it out.

Boyfriend informs me that RSS is archaic, blogs are archaic, etc. "No one uses RSS."

"But--what DO they use?"
"Twitter. Facebook."
"But, what if I don't want to consume content in that format!?"
"... At least they haven't shut down Blogger."

I'm a little more shocked than I need to be by this development due to the fact that the owner of the first place I blogged was bought out at the end of last month and is shut down with really no grace. It was a videogames blogsite begun in the early aughties by a major magazine in the days before Social Media had a name. Boyfriend Marc is one of many friends met there, and the ramshackle discontinuation of it rather smarts.

I've never been huge on FB and twitter; the true calling of which seems to be making sure that I know which fast food and strip mall chains my friends fancy before they slurp the last drops of the 20 oz. "small" soda which came with their combo meal.

Similarly, I don't enjoy blogger/blogspot's follow me/follow you system; it has a history of jankiness and I don't like the showy nature of the connection.

...

12,000? Wow. I've not looked at my metrics, but I doubt they are anywhere in the neighborhood of that. I do number among that host, however.

Pete said...

As always, I will rely on my trusted tech consultant (also known as my wife) to steer me to a good alternative. Preferably one that will allow easy migration of my feeds.

Andrew Hickey said...

theoldreader.com is very, very good. It's built to be exactly like Google Reader was before it lost all its social features. I've been using it for about six months now and never had a problem with it.