RSS in a Post-Google Reader World

Oh-so-conveniently for me, just as I’m starting a blog, one of the biggest RSS reader sites has closed up. Good timing, Katie!

But hey, let us not mourn Google Reader too long. There are other options out there for you, and even though Google Reader has closed down, if you were slow on the uptake or even downright lazy, there is a way to rescue your feeds to import into your chosen new reader.

Katie’s RSS Reader Suggestions
I’m certainly not the expert here, but I did do some research before the Google Reader ship went down, trying a couple out before deciding on one.

In second place, I recommend The Old Reader. Pros: It has an interface very similar to Google Reader, which is nice for those who avoid change whenever possible. It’s simple to use. Cons: I seem to get logged out of it every couple of days, though that could be because I use my readers mostly at work, and there I’m forced to use (*shudder*) Internet Explorer. Currently only a desktop reader, which may be a dealbreaker for some (though a lot of other options I saw were everything but desktop readers, which made this a pro initially for me).

My main recommendation, though, is Feedly. Pros: Easily allowed me to import my Google Reader, though that was before the old product shut down, and I don’t think it can do that anymore. It’s also slick and gives you suggestions for other feeds you may want based on what you’re reading. It has a nice app for phones/tablets, for those who don’t just read on the desktop, but they do have a really nice desktop version as well. Cons: Changing category names is cumbersome (I found I had to create a new one and move feeds into that category and out of the old one to do that). There’s no native “like” option. There’s a “saved for later”, and there’s a tagging option that I could probably utilize for it, but I miss just hitting a star and being able to revisit those old posts.

There are other options out there, of course. Gizmodo has a nice article that lists both of the above and more, if you want to check ’em out. No matter what you choose, I hope you’ll hit my little RSS link below to follow me!

Rescuing Your Google Reader Feeds
As promised, if you were late to the party, you still have a chance! Per the current Google Reader page, you have until July 15 to visit Google Takeout to download your data. That will give you a ZIP file, in which there is a file called “subscriptions.xml”. Both Feedly and The Old Reader (along with any others worthy of your time) have an option to Import, and that’s the file you’d upload.

Remember, you can only do this until JULY 15, 2013. After that the data is gone FOREVER. (Your archived data in Takeout will be available for a week, so if you download it on July 14, you can get it out of Takeout until July 21.)

Good luck to you all in this time of turbulence and experimentation! Let me know if you have good experience with any other RSS readers in the comments!

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