March 15, 2013

Google Reader on death row

Amazing as it seems now, way back in the 1980s I was almost an expert on software. Now, however, I'm barely in the ballpark terminologically. 

But I have an important announcement. Google Reader (which is some sort of ... thing that many people use, I am told, to read this blog) will be discontinued July 1, according to Google. I don't want you Google Reader readers to miss out. On the other hand, I don't, personally, want to, at this late date, go to the trouble of finally figuring out what Google Reader is so I can advise you on worthy replacements. 

So, here are some Google Reader Alternatives.

on

16 comments:

  1. Jeff Burton3/15/13, 4:26 PM

    Don't worry, Steve. We are way ahead of you on this.

    ReplyDelete
  2. IHTG3/15/13, 4:32 PM

    It's a thing that let you catch up on all your blogs without having to go through them bookmark-by-bookmark and check if they actually updated.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Who Set That Up?3/15/13, 4:34 PM

    can't believe someone as well-informed and as wide-ranging as yourself doesn't know about/use google reader;
    i've got about 4 hundred feeds hand-delivered to my
    portal that i've been carefully sourcing, eliminating and fine-tuning for years. one does not have to hunt or peck or search; cars, art, politics, chicks, museums -
    anything that is your thing updates itself on the hour, and then, anything you'd like to share with anyone anywhere, is one click away. it's like owning a constantly refreshed magazine rack of all your favorite things.
    google reader is my second brain.

    i've already moved on to two others, but i doubt i'll ever 'love' them as much as i do g-reader.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous3/15/13, 5:24 PM

    I'll just go back to using Thunderbird as my RSS reader.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Col. Reb Sez3/15/13, 5:42 PM

    I wish you would take an hour to put all your favorite blog addresses into Google Reader. Then use it for two weeks. Then cry.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous3/15/13, 5:43 PM

    Do you mean that you don't use an RSS reader? I'm shocked. You must waste an enormous amount of time clicking through blogs you follow to see if there are updates. If you use a reader, the updates will come to you instead.

    I use an RSS reader called Vienna (for Mac), which I like a lot.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Don't Be Evilish3/15/13, 8:52 PM

    G has been publicly poor-mouthing it for years, probably because they make no money on it. It was the best feed utility of its type but the freetards apparently thought it would go on indefinitely, just as a favor to "web culture"

    ReplyDelete
  8. SD3/15/13, 9:39 PM

    You should really try it while it's still there. There's also a good chance google might give in to popular demand.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Chip3/15/13, 9:59 PM

    I use GR every day. It's the best of its kind, and it's one of the few web tools that I would be willing to pay for. The argument that social media provide the same service is ludicrous. I'll switch to another reader, but the news is ... unwelcome.

    By the way, Steve, I hope you will consider following West Hunter's lead and doing annual eBooks of your postings here.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Alcalde Jaime Miguel Curleo3/15/13, 10:12 PM

    I used to use that RSS gatherer back when the Google "labs" were touting something new every day, until I realized it was causing me to spend a lot of time reading blogs. So I stopped...

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous3/15/13, 11:12 PM

    a good chance google might give in to popular demand

    Uh, what? For a free service which furthermore "competes with" their also free, failing Google+ service? The chance is in the neighborhood of 0.0

    ReplyDelete
  12. CharyOfTruth3/16/13, 8:11 AM

    I read iSteve by typing isteve.blogspot.com into my netscape navigator.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Socially Extinct3/16/13, 9:03 AM

    Feedly has been an adequate replacement, but it is not Reader. Oh well, in the Era of Google, it doesn't really matter what I like, or don't, right?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Cail Corishev3/16/13, 10:21 AM

    Feedly used to use Google Reader as its backend; is that no longer true?

    I use GR (like others, I can't imagine reading blogs (and comments) without an RSS reader), but I've always thought about creating an alternative to it, because it does a couple things I don't like. And there's always the concern about becoming too dependent on one technology company, for reasons just such as this. Maybe it's time to put that together.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous3/16/13, 3:19 PM

    Churr.. I gotta say, the most worthwhile feature of Google Reader is that it's made by Google (and thus has many third party clients), and supports synchronization by third party clients easily.

    So I can read newsfeeds without advertising, easily, quickly, on a big screen, and use one of many 'Google Reader' apps on a mobile device to listen to content through text-to-speech on my phone. Beats the hell out of talk radio.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous3/18/13, 10:54 AM

    "On the other hand, I don't, personally, want to, at this late date, go to the trouble of finally figuring out what Google Reader is so I can advise you on worthy replacements."

    Been re-reading Dave Barry again lately? I hear the echo of his prose here.

    ReplyDelete

Comments are moderated, at whim.