Best Google Reader Alternatives [Updated]

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Best Google Reader Alternatives [Updated]

As a blogger, I always rely on Feeds, and few content discovery app to find the news which interest me. I use Google reader to subscribe to blog updates and using NetNewsWire (Which will shut down too) on my Mac to read latest updates. NetNewsWire syncs with Google Reader, and thus you could always stay updated with the latest news from your favorite blogs. Now, Google has decided to shut down Google reader as part of their spring cleaning, and this came as a surprise for many, because usage of RSS feed is declining, there are many users like me, who still relies on Google reader to maintain the feed. Here is the official announcement, where Google mentioned some of the services they will be shutting down in coming days. That will include:

  • CallDAV API
  • Google Builder Maker
  • Google cloud connect
  • Google Reader on July 1st, 2013.
  • Google Voice app for blackberry
  • Search API for Shopping

I have never used any of the above apart from Google reader, and seeing G reader going away; it’s little sad. Though, if I look at my usage pattern, I already moved to other sources for discovering new news. For example Zite, News360, trap it!, they work as a content discovery and are much better than using traditional RSS feed method to stay updated. Again, this will be sad for people who are subscribe to some of their favorite blogs via RSS, as now they have to change the subscription to Email or use any of the Google reader alternatives to staying updated.

How to download data & my favorite Google Reader alternative:

If you are using any 3rd party desktop based Feed readers like NetNewsWire or feed-demon (FeedDemon will also shut down with Google reader), all of them offer feed export feature. So, all you need to do is, export OPML file, and you can later import OPML file to any alternatives which are mentioned below. You can also use Google takeout feature to take a complete backup of your Google reader data. Here is how you can do it:

  • Go to Google takeout
  • Login with your Gmail account
  • Click on Select services
  • Select Google reader from the list, in minute it will populate the size of the data.

Backup Google reader Click on create Archive. It will start archiving your data, and depending upon the size of your data, it will take little time. In my case it took around 45 seconds.  Once done, click on download, and it will download your Google reader data in .zip format. That’s it, and now you have a local backup of your Google reader data.

Google Reader alternatives:

Here are some of the alternatives that you could consider:

Feedly: 

Google reader alternative

Feedly is one of the famous feed reader, and is available for multiple platforms, including chrome addon. All you need to do is,  use feedly on your mobile device or on your browser, and sync with Google reader, once Google reader will shut down on 1st July, feedly will keep updating you with the latest news. You can read about it, on their official blog post.

Pulse:

Pulse Feed reader

I have already reviewed Pulse web feed reader, and mentioned in my favorite iPad feed readers. Though they have not made any official announcement regarding seamless transition from Google reader to Pulse feed reader,  but you can always add feeds manually. Update: Pulse added a quick importer from Google reader to your Pulse account. Since Pulse is available on Web, mobile apps, I’m sure you will love it. Especially, if you are using Pulse on your smart phone, you will enjoy the amazing layout and feed reading feature. To get started with Pulse Google reader importer, you need to

Update: Pulse added a quick importer from Google reader to your Pulse account. Since Pulse is available on Web, mobile apps, I’m sure you will love it. Specially, if you are using Pulse on your smart phone, you will enjoy the amazing layout and feed reading feature. To get started with Pulse Google reader importer, you need to go to this link, click on Get started, authenticate access to your Google reader account, and Pulse will import all your existing feeds to Pulse. If you are a new user, you can quickly create an account and import all feeds, or existing users can add all feeds in existing account. The process is very smooth and will not take more than 1 minute to import all existing feeds from Google reader to pulse.

Pulse Google reader importer

 Flipboard is another good alternative, but it works only on mobile. Though you can use Bluestacks app player to use it on your desktop. Newsblur seems to be a good option according to searchengineland. Netvibes and the old reader are few more options you have. Major problem will be faced by many iOS/Android based feed reader app, which relies on Google reader. Now, all of them have to find an alternate option, or simply give an option to import Google reader data. You can also publish your blog on Google current, and users can subscribe to your blog updates via Google currents iOS or Android app. You can subscribe to ShoutMeLoud updates on G Currents from this link. Shutting down of Google reader came as a complete surprise for many, but as I mentioned the way we discover news are changing. Now, we don’t rely on single blog updates, rather we follow topics, and use content discovery apps to find new content. More over, Google already shut down AdSense for feeds, now G reader, and if I’m not wrong, in coming years next could be Feedburner, as it doesn’t make any money for Google.

If you are a ShoutMeLoud reader, and using Google reader to track our updates, here are some alternative way to get our latest updates:

Do let me know which one from the above list is going to be your Google reader alternative?? If I miss any, do let me know via comments. Also, I would love to know your opinion on Google shutting down reader?

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Article by Harsh Agrawal

Harsh has written 1043 articles.

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Comments

  1. says

    When it comes to Android and iOS the news reading app pulse is the best and if we consider multiple platforms then feedly should be your choice,since it has been around for a while now and also comes with a clean user friendly Interface.

  2. Aakash says

    Feedly is the best Google Reader Alternative out there. They are also building a RSS Feed Reader similar to Google Reader. And the best thing is that it is free. While, Netvibes works on a Freemium Model. I think that Feedburner is next. Migrate your Feeds to FeedBlitz. Setup MyBrand for ShoutMeLoud’s Feed and then redirect it to your new feed address.

  3. Sanjib Kumar Saha says

    I as really shocked to hear that Google is going to shut down the Google Reader service. Now after checking yours, now only found that there are alternative for it. Guess these things can take over the place of Google Reader.

  4. stargaterich says

    I think the regular folks will not be impacted much by the absence of Google Reader. After as you have highlighted in this post there are various alternative sources to pull news. RSS technology is really old and may soon become obsolete. Most are moving to JSON and other content delivery format. Google Reader take down has tremendous impact on software applications that leverage on the Google Reader RSS for content curation.

  5. says

    NewsBlur is an alternative but ,In a tweet NewsBlur said that its site had slowed because of the heavy traffic caused by users fleeing Google Reader and also it’s temporarily suspended free accounts creation.
    The question here is that these other alternatives will serve the purpose as effective as Google Reader?

  6. says

    As long as the rss feeds stay I am okay with loosing a reader. I like getting my bit of news using Google email alerts, it allows me to really monitor in real time like rss but with a twist of seeing things you never seen before. I sometimes do not understand why some sites do not like sharing their feed. What would be some good reasons why one would not want to share their rss feed?

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