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.
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.
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.
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.
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 them several 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'rebuilding 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.
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.
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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