Kim Avery Coaching

R. I. P. Google Reader

by | 6 comments

rip-google-readerOkay, so the obituary is a couple of weeks premature. But Google Reader is definitely on it’s way out. As of July 1, 2013, it will no longer be active, and if you haven’t found another feed reader, you will be, shall we say, dead in the water.

If you have found blogs you like (like this one), a feed reader makes it easy for you to keep up with new content that gets published. You don’t have to check back every day or every week to see if there is something new. All of the new content gets compiled for you, and is waiting whenever you decide to read it.

Many blogs offer the option of receiving an email with the new blog content, and while that certainly is nice, I prefer a feed reader. The challenge for me with an email subscription is that I’m not always ready to stop and read a blog post when it arrives, and it will often get lost in the crowd or deleted by mistake.

A feed reader compiles all the latest content from all the blogs I follow and serves it up to me when I’m ready to read it.

There are several feed readers lined up to be the replacement of choice for Google Reader. For your convenience, I will list some of them down below. Most of them are working hard to make the transition to their platform painless for you, so I’ll just give you the generic form of instructions here.

When you go to their site and create an account, you should use your Google email, the one that is associated with your Google Reader account. When you do that, the site will assume that you are planning to use them to replace Google Reader, and it will ask you if you want to transfer all your subscriptions (feeds) over. When you say yes, it will ask you to confirm that it has permission to access that information from your account. And in short order, you will be set up with all your feeds on the new platform.

Many of them go so far as to have a button on their site for you to click to “Replace Google Reader Here!”

feedlyI’ve looked at several options over the past month, and have chosen Feedly.com. The transition was seamless and painless. And it was easy to add to my iPhone and iPad.

One of the things I especially like about Feedly is that when I subscribe to a new feed, it automagically loads it right into my account. In the past, with Google Reader, when I would click on an RSS Feed button, it would take me to Feedburner and allow me to choose my preferred method of receiving it. Feedly makes it much easier.

Now, there are, of course, many other options. Here are some of them.

And if you want more choices, just do a Google search for “Google Reader Replacement” – You’ll find plenty!

I would love to know what you are using and why you chose it – won’t you share with us in the comments?

6 Comments

  1. Renee

    So Kim, I went to feedly.com to create an account. I found that I already had one — and you were/are one of about 3 to 5 blogs in it. Looks as if bloggers want to contact me, email still is there best bet 🙂

    • Kim Avery

      That’s funny, Renee, but I understand. It’s take awhile to get in the habit of checking a feed reader, so email really is the easiest.

  2. Laura-Catherine

    Hi Kim, Do I need to do anything to keep getting this blog? I.E. how would I find out and make the changes needed to know what blogs to change and which one not to???

    • Susan Fleming

      Hi Laura-Catherine,
      If you are receiving the blogs in your email, then nothing will change for you. If you have subscribed through Google Reader with an RSS subscription, then after July 1, you won’t get any updates through Google Reader. If you aren’t using Google Reader, then you don’t have to make any changes at all. Does that help?
      Susan

  3. Pam taylor

    How do you start from scratch if you aren’t already a “google reader” and you want to start receiving on a “feed” like you describe.

    • Susan Fleming

      As I said in the post, I’m using Feedly.com now. So you would just go to that site and set up an account. And then whenever you are on a blog that you want to follow, and click their RSS feed button, Feedly will pop up and offer to add the feed for you. To read your feeds (all the latest posts from all the blogs you follow), just go to your Feedly account and they will all be there. It does still ask me if I want to import from Google Reader, but I’m assuming that after GR goes away, it won’t do that anymore. Hope so, anyway!