when your Google Reader dies … because it’s about to

by Alison Green on June 20, 2013

A lot of you read this blog in Google Reader.

But as you probably know, as of July 1, Google Reader will be no more, and you’ll no longer be able to find Ask a Manager posts there.

I am seriously upset about this for two reasons: First, I adore Google Reader and I obsessively check it throughout the day for new content. Second, I’m worried that I’m going to have a major drop-off in readership when it goes away, and I do not want that.

So if you follow this blog through Google Reader, the time is now to start switching over to another RSS reader — so that you don’t miss any posts when the terrible end comes in a week and a half.

Some alternatives that are getting strongly recommended in other quarters, all of which look reasonable to me:

Newsblur
CommaFeed
Feedly
The Old Reader

All of these are pretty plain and basic (like Google Reader), with the exception of Feedly, which is flashier. Personally, I believe flashiness has no place in a reader, but you might like it. And most (maybe all?) of these sites will import your feeds directly from Google Reader so you hardly have to do any work to get them set up.

I’m leaning toward CommaFeed, which is the most basic one I’ve found.

Let us resolve to take this terrible step together, right now, because I still want you here in July.

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{ 126 comments }

{ 126 comments… read them below }

  1. Jen*

    Netvibes is another option. But it makes me sad because nothing is quite like Google Reader as far as simplicity.

      1. tcookson*

        I switched to Netvibes awhile back, after deeply mourning the loss of my Google reader. I made the change early because I wanted to have Google Reader as my backup as I adjusted to the change. At first I would check the feeds in Google against the feeds in Netvibes, to make sure that all my items were syncing properly and I wasn’t missing out on any content.

        I’m happy to report that Netvibes has been great, and I haven’t checked Google reader in a long time. I even have a g-mail module in netvibes so I can check my google mail.

    2. Chris80*

      Yep, I moved to Netvibes a couple months ago, not long after the Google Reader announcement was made. I miss Google Reader, but am happy overall with Netvibes. Now I just need to find a RSS feed app for my Windows phone, since my current app is connected to Google Reader.

    3. Jessica (the celt)*

      I switched to Netvibes several years ago when Google Reader started “marking as read” anything 30 days older, even those things I was saving for a reason. Some other feed readers also do this to keep the number of “live” feeds down, but Netvibes doesn’t, for which I’m glad. I’m so behind on my feeds right now, but when I get a break from work and my master’s program, I get to dive in and try to catch up some.

      2. Jessa*

        I think the whole universe has been avoiding this. I really think it’s a dumb thing for Google to have done, considering they’re expanding their fingers into all kinds of other pies.

        1. Josh S*

          I get your point–I wish Google weren’t shutting down Reader too.

          But I don’t know how ‘dumb’ it is. The active user base on Reader has been in decline for a while because people are getting their news elsewhere–there’s simply more areas of growth that Google can put their resources toward.

          One thing I wish they had done was incorporate Reader into one of their other services–most likely G+. I know that not a ton of people use it (though I do!), but the social sharing aspect of RSS readers is something that has been growing significantly in the past year, even as the user base has declined.

          It’s possible that Google is planning to incorporate some of its Reader functionality into G+, and the communities in that social media channel are already where Google sees the next vein of news consumption coming from.

          If they don’t give users the granular control through G+ that they had through Reader, instead offering them a pre-curated list of news that is “popular” based on some algorithm, rather than the actual list that they select, then I’ll call them dumb.

  3. anon o*

    I switched to comma feed but I find it updates really slowly – articles don’t show up for a long time after they’re posted. It took weeks for feedly to switch my links over but it finally happened this week so I’ll give that a try. These might all just be glitches as they handle the onslaught of google reader customers. I hope so!

      1. Ashley*

        I just switched to NewsBlur and so far I really like it. I bit the bullet and went premium because I have so many feeds. It is as simple to use as Google Reader and has some added features which I think are nice without complicating things. Their mobile app is also nice and streamlined.

        I tried Feedly for a while after the announcement was first made, but it was too much for me.

        1. CathVWXYNot?*

          +1 – I’ve tried Feedly and Old Reader, but NewsBlur (also with a premium account) just “feels right” in a way the others don’t. And their mobile app is the best mobile RSS reader I’ve tried, hands down.

          1. jasmine*

            I’m also happy with NewsBlur. The experience is very much like Google Reader, and you can import your feeds from Google Reader. You can get 64 RSS feeds with a free account and unlimited feeds for $24 a year.

  4. Esra*

    I switched to Feedly when Google announced Reader’s coming end. It’s been mostly good so far, and I like that it syncs well with my phone.

    You can tone down most of the flashiness in the settings, so it’s basically Google Reader, only green.

    2. Cathy*

      I’m liking Feedly now that I’ve got it all setup properly. Since they migrated to their own servers this week, I find that it’s running very fast. The disadvantage is it requires a browser plug-in and they’re only available for Chrome and Firefox, so if you love IE or if you’re required to use it for some reason, Feedly is not for you. I do like the iPad and iPhone apps too.

      I selected Full Articles in the preferences page, and I have Oldest First checked for each category (not sure why there’s no global setting for Oldest First). This is almost exactly what I had in Google Reader, and I can still use the j/k keys for forward and back, so all-in-all it’s very comfortable.

      1. Nicole*

        It’s no longer true that Feedly is only accessible via a plug-in. If you have a Feedly account and go to feedly.com you will see your feeds. :)

    3. Kerry*

      Yeah, it’s possible to Google Reader-ise the Feedly display – it’s what I’ve done and I like it best.

      I wish it had a Windows phone app, though!

    4. Legal Eagle*

      Feedly can be used with varying degrees of flashiness. Mine is semi-flashy.

      I already used Chrome and I have an iphone, so it’s been very convenient for me to use!

    5. Josh S*

      I’ve been on Feedly for a few days now, and it feels pretty similar in functionality and use as Google Reader did. That’s a win for me, and I don’t see a reason to try the others.

    6. Kelly O*

      I switched to Feedly, and I use Chrome. No issues at all, and I do like the categorizing, as well as the ability to share across more than one platform. (I did not like that Google basically only let you share on Google there near the end.)

      So far, no complaints.

  5. Anonymous*

    I like The Old Reader a lot and sometimes I forget it’s not Google Reader when I’m using it.

      2. Erin*

        I prefer The Old Reader over Feedly, but I did notice a delay in some posts. Hopefully they will improve, because I like the layout better than Google Reader, even.

      3. junipergreen*

        Fellow Google Reader addict in mourning here… I switched to the Old Reader and really like it. I dig the sharing and commenting features Google Reader had stopped supporting many m0ons ago, and it seems to update feeds quickly and smoothly.

      4. Cathi*

        It does not update nearly as often :( I came down here to the comments to specifically say that I’m really enjoying The Old Reader for it’s Google Reader-feel, but I will see it update itself (oh boy! A new post!) and then click over to the main site to see that it’s already filled with 100 comments and I’m super late to the party.

  6. Di*

    I explored several options after Google’s announcement of Reader’s impending doom. Feedly’s worked out the best for me because they seem to be the only one that’s taken steps to improve their platform and they’ve made changes that has made Feedly behave more like Google Reader.

    You will need to play with the settings a little, but my current Feedly homepage looks *very* similar to Reader.

    1. btdubbs*

      Are you able to run searches in Feedly like G.Reader? I set my account up awhile ago but I haven’t been able to figure out if there is a searching option for specific content.

      1. Di*

        Not currently, but supposedly they are working to see if they can add it according to their user feedback site. Some people are pessimistic that they’ll build it, but it’ll only be accessible via a premium paid account.

    2. Brittany T.*

      That’s exactly what I like about Feedly–they’ve really jumped at this opportunity and keep rolling out new features and improvements.

  7. Wilton Businessman*

    I migrated my stuff to Thunderbird RSS feeds a couple days ago. I don’t like it because it’s not web based, but I didn’t want to lose all my feeds. I have technical challenges that I have to overcome before I can do another web-based RSS reader. I’ve been meaning to get off iGoogle and this has just made my exit even more expedient.

    We (in IT) constantly have a battle of “host it yourself” and “host it somewhere else”, both sides with good arguments. Unfortunately things like this happen and one side points fingers to the other and says “SEE! I TOLD YOU SO!” We shall get through this, there are alternatives.

  8. MF*

    I’ve been using The old reader for a few months, preparing myself for the dreaded transition, and I’ve really liked it so far. My roommate and I have both noticed that it is slow to update sometimes, but I think it’s gotten better in the last few weeks, actually.
    Also – it has sharing, like google reader used to have, which I really enjoy.

  9. Brittany*

    I’m using Bloglovin but my biggest gripe is that it doesn’t add posts right away. I can check someone’s blog by just going to it and they have a new post up but Bloglovin takes about another 20-30 mins to let you know that it’s up there. Plus you have to exit out of the Bloglovin bar to make a comment.

    I wish google would stop getting rid of all their good stuff.

    2. ShirleyCakes*

      I find that when I go into Bloglovin I always have to hit refresh as soon as the page loads for it to pull up the latest posts.

      (kind of like always having to hit send-receive with an outdated email program)

      Unfortunately now that I’ve migrated there I’m hesitant to try to migrate elsewhere…

  10. Tapshoes8686*

    Ever heard of Feeddler? Have the app on iPhone/iPad and I like it and really basic,

    1. Nicole*

      Yes, I was using Feeddler for a long time until I switched to Feedly. The problem with Feeddler is that right now it’s still synced to Google Reader and it sounds like that sync will be changed to Feedly’s API or you will have to purchase a new app. Not a big fan of that since I already paid for the ad-free version last year. But I’m keeping my eye on their development.

      I got my info from here – http://blog.chebinliu.com/

  11. ChristineSW*

    For those who use Facebook, an option is to subscribe to AAM’s page. I get giddy when new AAM posts show up in my feed :)

    (I’ve never really used any sort of Reader except maybe what’s built in to Firefox, so I do recognize that FB doesn’t alert you to new comments on a post, as I imagine Google Reader and these others do.)

    1. twentymilehike*

      I admit, I do rely pretty heavily on the Facebook posts!

      Although, for Saturday mornings, I spend some quality time catching up on blogs on my iPad, which is really the only place I use a reader. I struggled for a long time to find one I liked on my iPad and I finally settled on the Pulse app. It might be a little flashy for Alison, but I like how you can organize your feeds into categories.

    2. Victoria Nonprofit*

      Just a note: You can’t be guaranteed to get all of the updates via Facebook. They don’t automatically publish every update to every subscriber.

  12. CJ*

    Bloglovin’ is great. I transferred weeks ago and I actually prefer it to Reader. It’s mobile version is even better than the desktop version.

  13. Heather*

    I’ve been using The Old Reader the last few weeks and it has a lot of the functionality that was taken away in recent Google Reader updates. I know they are continually working on it and it is streamlined the way I like it to be. It is slightly slow to update, but it’s not outrageously so. Generally a matter of minutes behind Google Reader.

    I will say it’s even better with a style mod! http://userstyles.org/styles/browse/all/old%20reader I use the compact and unread bold one and it gets even closer to the old Google Reader.

  14. Mo*

    Another vote here for The Old Reader. It looks a lot like Google reader, and has features like the older version (hence the name). Plus, when it’s down, there are pictures of kittens that change when you refresh it.

    1. PaulaS*

      Ditto here. I’ve used the Old Reader after trying a couple others and it was easiest for me right out of the box. Any annoyances are so minor that I don’t even pay attention to them anymore. Kitties are a plus too.

  15. clobbered*

    I switched to Newsblur a couple of weeks ago, and read you loud and clear :-) By default it’s a bit “EEK!” but a few minutes with the preferences and you’ve got something pretty close to Reader, and with private sharing to boot.

  16. VictoriaHR*

    I feed my RSS’s through my Outlook. Right click on RSS Feeds and add a new feed, then copy/paste the feed URL and go. It’ll create a new folder under RSS Feeds for each feed, and whenever that feed publishes a new article, it pops up in my Outlook. Pretty slick.

    1. JuliB*

      I was wondering about Outlook! In Google, I don’t get to see any comments (maybe I have something set up incorrectly, but it doesn’t matter now) – can you see any in Outlook?

  17. Jane*

    Out of curiosity – does anyone else use the RSS feeder on outlook? I use it for industry-related website and product releases. I hesitated on adding AAM because of the job searching articles, but didn’t think of it as too much of an issue.

  18. Caroline*

    I’m using Feedbin (switched over a few weeks ago to give myself time to adjust) and I’ve been pleased. The web view is passable and it syncs with Reeder on iPhone, my main way to read feeds (the Mac & iPad versions of Reeder will get Feedbin syncing soon).

    https://feedbin.me/

  19. LPBB*

    Am I the only person that never really liked Google Reader?

    I have been using Newsblur for about 18 months (a paying user for a year) and before that was using FeedLooks (which I really miss). I like being able to see the original appearance of blog posts within my feed reader because I like having that context. I don’t use the intelligence tracker, so I don’t know anything about the functionality of that.

    I will say that I took a break from using NewsBlur for a few months because it was becoming a huge timesuck. When I came back, Clay had made some changes that seemed to result in it running slower on my computer. But it suits my purposes the best so far, so I’m sticking with it.

    1. LPBB*

      Also forgot to say that I don’t have a smart phone or tablet yet, so I have no idea how well it plays with those devices.

      Also, this discussion is making me wish that Newsblur played well with the firewall here at work because I haven’t looked at it for a few days now.

      1. Ashley*

        I just downloaded the app for NewsBlur for my iPhone and it is nice and streamlined. I tried Feedly first and their app was frustrating.

    2. Ashley*

      It wasn’t that it was the end all be all, it was just what I was most familiar with. However, I am an all-Google user so I really liked the one interface for many functions thing.

  21. kristinyc*

    I’m actually taking this as an opportunity to unplug a little. I spend entirely too much time online reading things that I don’t even really care about (more on Facebook than blogs, but still – I consume too much media). I’m spending the summer setting up my craft room and working on creative projects, and I’m really excited about it.

    I’m just subscribing to the blogs that I really care about via email, and reading them that way. I’m actually really looking forward to not having that nagging sense of responsibility when I go on vacation for a few days and come back to 2000 unread articles. I always feel like I have to scan through all of them and can’t just click “Mark all as read”.

    (That being said, I’ll still be around here since I absolutely adore this blog, Allison, and all the lovely commenters. I already get the emails from AAM, and I follow on Facebook and Twitter.)

    1. Lee*

      I decided to downsize, too, and cut my number of feeds to just a few favorites. I have been using the Pulse app.

  22. Reejay*

    I was upset too when Google Reader went away. I searched for several alternatives and I found Feedly works great within Chrome. However, their mobile Android app crashes on me frequently so hopefully they’ll keep working on that.

    1. Esra*

      I haven’t had issues with it crashing on my s3, but I worry with a few apps that I’m an update away from doom.

  24. Tina Career Counselor*

    Alison – if it makes you feel any better,some of us just go directly to your blog because we know you’ll always have something useful to say :)

    I tried using Google Reader a while back, but I didn’t care for it, I couldn’t even tell you why. But I also don’t follow that many blogs consistently, so that may be part of it. I still like getting email updates from blogs, as outdated as that seems.

    1. Windchime*

      Yeah, this is me. I was starting to wonder if I’m the only person who just comes to the website and reads!

    2. LMW*

      Me too. I think I briefly tried the Google Reader but didn’t like it. I like the experience of going to the site and seeing everything set up the way the blogger intends it, having access to archives, etc.

    3. Ellie H.*

      I always go to the actual sites of the blogs I read. I’ve never used any kind of reader and I really don’t understand what their purpose is or why anyone would use one, unless you read like upwards of 10 – 15 blogs.

      1. Llama*

        I subscribe to 100+ blogs in my Reader. I think many people read more than 10-15 blogs.

        1. Llama*

          Actually, turned out it’s more like 320 feeds when I did a Google takeout export just now. I should probably stop reading some of these blogs…

          1. Anonymous*

            464 feeds in my Takeout.

            I’ve always loved how it all came to me in one spot instead of roaming from site to site, but the real appeal of an RSS feed is the ease of keeping up with things that are only updated now and then

      2. CathVWXYNot?*

        Yup, hundreds of feeds for me too. The majority aren’t blogs but rather alerts for new articles published in scientific journals, new grant competition alerts, saved Google searches that alert me when our organisation or one of our researchers is mentioned in the news, event invitations etc etc etc.

        I guess I don’t understand why people don’t use readers… I’ve converted many of my team to the same system and they all love it too!

  26. louise*

    I feel like an idiot for the deep sense of loss I’ve felt since they made their first announcement. I’ve been looking and trying out other things, but I just feel so…sad over this. And then I feel sad for being so ridiculous about a *reader*, for goodness’ sake.

    1. Ask a Manager* Post author

      I completely relate to this! I think if you use it as your basic doorway to much of the web, which I certainly do, and if you’re a heavy web browser, then it’s losing something that plays a key role in your daily life. It’s weird.

      1. anon o*

        I generally try not to get upset when free things are changed or go away but this one really upset me too.

      2. Nicole*

        What I found so perplexing was that the reason they decided to sunset the service was that it wasn’t very popular. Really? So how do people keep up to date on the sites they like? Do they just browse each site each day looking for new content? I guess that just blows my mind. Call my Type A but I like all my content nicely organized and delivered to me easily without any effort on my part. I also like that I can save it to read later (either in the service itself or to Pocket which I also love, particularly if I’m reading through my Twitter feed and want to read a linked article – it’s actually faster to save everything to Pocket and then once I’m up to date on my Twitter feed, go into Pocket and read all the articles I just saved).

          1. tcookson*

            I felt the same sense of bewilderment and loss when I first found out that Reader was being retired. I don’t know anyone else in real life who uses a reader, either, but I can’t imagine managing without one.

            I have all my advice columns and blogs (I regularly follow about 15 of them) arranged in order of preference (with AAM at the top, of course!) so that the most exciting content comes in at the top, and the mundane stuff (like the local city council blog) comes in at the bottom.

            If I didn’t have a reader, I would always go to AAM’s website (and a few of the other ones) and read, but there are some of my feeds that I’d just lose touch with because I wouldn’t be that motivated to search them out.

        2. Just me*

          I haven’t used a reader, but I do follow blogs, and was always wanting something where I could save articles for later. I didn’t know that was even an option. Maybe I’ll start now.

          However, I do use the “reader” part of my browser on the ipad. I’m guessing it’s similar? Maybe I should look into this more.

  27. Jim G*

    One promising alternative you didn’t mention was yoleoreader.com . Very familiar interface, and they’re actively adding new features. It’s pretty responsive so far (almost as fast as GR). Plus, you can automatically import your Google Reader feed without having to export it.

    1. Jamie*

      I like feedly, too – and switched about a month ago. The only issue I have with it is that sometimes it updates immediately and sometimes it has a long lag. Other than that I love it – and the GUI is really pretty and has options.

  29. Anon E*

    i’ve been using Feedreader for the last few months and absolutely love it and highly recommend it. There’s an online version and a downloadable version. I love the downloadable version the most because it is downloadable; no more frustrations when suddenly one day I log in and everything’s moved around, I can control my upgrade time, and I can keep using it even if they stop supporting it or take it down. It’s great for checking feeds and you can group them very nicely, as well as export/import.

  30. Runon*

    I mainly use Reeder (the iPad app) which of course pulls content from Google Reader so I’m still holding out hope that they’ll be putting out that update they’ve been promising. I don’t really like reading most of my feeds in a browser, it encourages constant refreshing during the day and much of it I just want to sit down and read thru, especially longer form pieces. But I’ll be figuring out exactly what I need to use this weekend. I hope you don’t lose too many readers!

    1. Layla*

      I use reeder too !
      It allows you to subscribe directly to a feed –
      Which I would probably do for AAM if nothing else works
      Bad points –
      Can’t sync read & unread when I’m on a PC
      I’ll bet it is pretty slow if you connect to tons of feeds

      Still waiting for the update too ! If not coming by 1 jul , I might just hold out by subscribing to favourite feeds directly

  31. Jack*

    I went ahead and ponied up the money for Newsblur because I really like it. It does have some features I don’t use, but it has a good Android app (the reason I didn’t work out with Old Reader) and I don’t accidentally mark everything as read (the problem I had with Feedly).

  32. Nicole*

    Have you given Feedly a try? I agree that flashiness has no business in a feed reader (which is why I shy away from the magazine style readers), but I’ve found it’s actually pretty nice since you can elect how your feeds are displayed to you. The best part is you give it your Google login info so it can connect and pull in all your feeds, including your saved items.

    I suggest at least trying it; you can just stop using it if you find a better alternative. I’m not 100% sold on it myself but for now it works quite well for me, particularly because it has a web interface (they just introduced it the other day; before it was a browser extension) and apps where everything stays in sync. This is perfect since I alternate between my computer, my phone, and my tablet as I read feeds throughout the day (including this site).

    P.S. I also downloaded my feeds from Google Reader when I signed up for Feedly so I have a file to import into other services that I plan to try out (I hear Digg is taking a crack at a feed reader as well).

  33. KJ*

    I’m using The Old Reader and I like it; it’s a little slow, but I haven’t found that to be a problem. It has all the simplicity of Google Reader, with the social functions that they axed a while back (and which I miss terribly). However, I’m also excited by Digg’s announcement that they’ll have a reader up before the end of June: http://blog.digg.com/post/45355701332/were-building-a-reader
    Seems promising!

  34. Chinook*

    Do any of you use Google Reader or other RSS with a Blackberry? I am trying to find an alternative that I can use on my Playbook.

  35. Chinook*

    Do any of you use Google Reader or other RSS with a Blackberry? I am trying to find an alternative that I can use on my Playbook.

    And Allison, you won’t be loosing me. Not only are you in my RSS feed, I have bookmarked you in various devices with internet for when I get bored. Your site is easier to find for me than the CBC News!

    1. OmarF*

      I switched to InoReader a couple weeks ago. It works perfectly on my Playbook. Better than Google Reader ever did. I no longer feel the need for an app on my tablet.

      This service is being developed constantly. The developer decided to roll his own reader service after not liking the choices out there. My biggest concern is the amount of requests he is getting for additional features. However, he’s putting most of the next couple weeks into bug fixes and improving performance as more users register.

  37. Lori M*

    I’ve been using Google Reader forever, and I can’t believe it is going away. I’ve been using Feedly for the last month or so, and it has been mostly fine, though sometimes it doesn’t load the blog titles/links, making it impossible for me to open up the actual post, which is necessary, since many blogs only post teaser copy in the feed. Then yesterday, for some reason, Feedly automatically changed my reader account, so that feeds from my old, former, Google reader account showed up, and not the ones I attached to Feedly last month. So I had to log out and re-format, which I was fortunately able to do since I left my Google Reader settings up, but would have lost everything if this were after July 1st. So now I am looking to try a new one. Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

  38. beth*

    I love NewsBlur, I’ve tried most of the options mentioned and NewsBlur is by far my favorite.

  39. Cheryl Becker*

    I switched to Feedly pretty early on because many of my Facebook friends were touting it. It was fine. Then mysteriously, it would no longer load in my browser. I mentioned this on Facebook, and another friend recommended the Old Reader, which I’ve been using since, with no problems. I also follow some in the WordPress Reader, but that seems to work best with other WordPress sites.

    In a related issue, I also use iGoogle, which is also going to die. Can’t find anything like it to replace it. :-(

    Gotta love technology, right?

    1. Anon*

      I’m doing the double loss too, I use the Google Reader widget on my iGoogle page. I’d actually forgotten all about the shut down of Reader so 1 July would have been a nasty surprise for me. Guess I best find a way to deal with Google taking away my useful tools.

  40. EG*

    I moved over to Feedly (after trying The Old Reader first) as soon as the end of Google Reader was announced. With just a couple of tweaks it looks great, and works wonderfully on my tablet too.

    AAM stays open on my computer 24/7 and I usually refresh the page regularly to make sure I don’t miss anything. :)

  42. Mrs Addams*

    Urgh. I’ve been ignoring this for months, hoping it would go away and that Google reader will live forever. Sadly not. I’ll have to check out some of the recommendations here, but I fear nothing will come close to GR.

  43. Renee Nichol*

    I just bit the bullet and downloaded NewsBlur and you know … it’s not that bad! I was kind of dreading this, but so far I’m pleasantly surprised. It seems to be pretty up to date too – there’s a brand new Ask A Manager post in there that looks like it was only posted 15 minutes ago :)

  44. joey*

    Just wanted to post here to say — I’ve tried a LOT of readers and am putting my experiences here in case it helps anyone else
    tl;dr
    Feedly cloud is what I am using at the moment, and I love it.

    Feedly originally: don’t want a browser extension which has access to all my browsing
    TheOldReader — selectively sucks at updating (on the order of hours of delay) — they have acknowledged this and say they don’t have the capacity to make it better
    bloglines and netvibes show all feeds, even ones with no unread –making it cluttered (I subscribe to a lot of feeds)
    inoreader doesn’t have the “turn off mark read when scrolling through”
    reedah doesn’t have keyboard shortcuts (yet)
    commafeed also had slow updates
    I tried a couple of desktop ones as well but wasn’t impressed — plus I want my read/unread to sync across computers. (home, work, laptop, phone, tablet)

    1. tcookson*

      RE: Netvibes: I like the fact that it shows all my feeds, regardless of read/unread. I only follow about 15 blogs, though, so clutter probably isn’t as much of a problem for me as it is for you, Joey. I like being able to see all my blogs; it helps me track how active/inactive a blog is. If they didn’t show up when there was no new content, I’d probably forget about them. I’ve deleted some feeds when I’ve notice it had been months since there was any new content in there.

    2. OmarF*

      “inoreader doesn’t have the “turn off mark read when scrolling through””

      Unless I misunderstand your request, there appears to be a setting for that. And if there isn’t, register on their bulletin board and ask for the feature. Based on the past couple weeks, if it’s a simple change, the developer will slipstream the feature for you. Often within hours.

      1. joey*

        It was broken when I tried it (the setting was there, but it was not implemented correctly). I did notice someone had posted about it but had not gotten a response in 5 days.
        I just looked again and it appears to be fixed now. What is not fixed is the update speed (which seems to a problem in almost everything I tried). InoReader is over an hour behind on one of my feeds.

  45. Jenesse*

    I’ve already switched to bloglovin and I think it’s great. Just another option to add!

  46. Jen in RO*

    Thanks to the commenters that pointed out that Feedly no longer needs a browser extension! I’m trying to switch to it, since it also offers a mobile app that doesn’t look bad at all. (Like Joey, I need it to sync across multiple devices.)

    1. Jen in RO*

      …Or not, because it refuses to let me log in if I’m using Opera :( It redirects to a Google login page and then just doesn’t load anything… Damn.

  47. Liz*

    I have been using blogtrottr for the last few months, its an rss reader but instead of reading it on the blogtrottr site it sends all the new articles to your email address which are then super easy to filter into labels or folders =]

  48. Anonymous*

    I’ve been using Google Reader + Feedly for years. Really, I think you can’t beat Feedly. If you sign up now, the transition will be seamless.

  49. Brandon*

    I use Feedly and while it has lots of bells and whistles, it makes my life so much better compared to Google Reader. I was extremely hesitant to switch but it’s been such an improvement. Feedly is actually invested in making changes unlike Google Reader.

  50. kimberly*

    I’ve had feedly up and running for several weeks now, and tried the other three options this weekend. I’m really not happy with any of them.

    I love the look/feel of The Old Reader and CommaFeed, but both are horribly slow — both in updating and in loading. The loading issue has made both pretty unusable.

    For a while, I thought I just had too many feeds; reading through these comments tells me otherwise :). I’m somewhere around 70.

    I’m really hoping this gets fixed. I know those sites are experiencing a HUGE upswing in users.

    Newsblur has also been a little slow to load at times, but seems to update pretty frequently. Navigating through it is painful, though. I don’t like the split reading window and I can’t use my cursor to scroll down the article — I have to use the mouse. I don’t like using the mouse when the keyboard should suffice.

    NONE of those three seem to synch across devices, which is really annoying. Though it is hard to tell when it takes 15 minutes for the page to load (sometimes longer). My attention span isn’t all that long and I stop paying attention to what I’ve read.

    Some of these problems might be just figuring out how to set up the preferences correctly or a learning curve on how navigation is set up for that reader.

    Feedly really does seem to work well, but I have one major issue with it: I *need* to have the feed index with unread post counts in bold along the pane on the left. I don’t know why I seem to so badly need this feature, but missing it is causing me distress and is why I continue to find a different google reader substitute. Feedly does have an index option, but it puts the index in the reading pane, and that is just wrong. It doesn’t belong there. It needs to be permanently displayed in the pane on the left.

    I’ve played around with the preferences and haven’t figured out a way to get it set up that way. If anyone else has figured this out, please let me know!

    The other issue is that feedly’s moblie app is a pain. I had to uninstall it because it wouldn’t load. Hoping they fix that soon. On the plus side, the mobile reader app that I do use just updated to include feedly, so I might not lose anything there.

    For now, I’ll continue to use them all until I figure out which one I’m adapting to best. Or I find something else.

  51. adlin*

    I originally started with Bloglines, then it changed, so I went w/ Google reader. I’ve gone back to Bloglines and it does have an option to show only unread items. Bloglines feeds into or is a part of Netvibes.

    Bloglovin looks interesting though, so I may check that out as well.
    I

  52. Penny*

    I feel your pain. Google killed Instant Preview recently which I loved and I still go to use the preview only to realize it’s no more. It helped me avoid entering scam and unprofessional sites or useless ones because you could preview the page you’d be on before actually clicking it. Now I have to take the risk or avoid any unknown sites. :(

  53. Andi*

    Thank you for writing this post! I’ve been in mourning over my Google Reader for months. If Google was having a funeral for it, I’d be in attendance.

    I didn’t know about Comma Feed before – I had just tried the Mashable-recommended Feedly and hated it. Comma Feed looks enough like Google Reader that I can almost feel ok about it being discontinued!

  54. jennie*

    Now that the sad day has come and Google Reader is no more, I wanted to let you know I’m using Feedly and the only update I’ve received today is the initial Tiny Answer Tuesday. The other three updates haven’t appeared in my feed as of 4:00pm ET. :(

    1. Ask a Manager* Post author

      Ugh, I saw that too. I’m going to keep an eye on it — I’m hoping that maybe they’re just dealing with a crush of refugees from Reader right now and will fix the slowness soon!

  55. LaurenL*

    Just wanted to throw a comment in here that I’ve been using commafeed since Google Reader went away, and I’ve seen about half of your posts come through. So, back on the site to catch up on AAM and per recommendations above, I’m switching to The Old Reader. I do not recommend commafeed. I continue to mourn the loss of Google Reader.

      1. LaurenL*

        Oh, Feedly, please make yourself IE usable! I love Feedly on my iPhone, but work confines me to IE, which is sadly not yet supported by Feedly. So, for now, The Old Reader will do.

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