No More Google Reader? Well, Screw RSS Then!

Posted in Cloud Computing, iPad & iOS, Software

On the 1st of July 2013, Google is going to pull the plug on their useful RSS reader.

No More Google Reader?

If you’d like to download a copy of all your Reader data before then, you can do so through Google Takeout. You’ll receive your subscription data in an XML file, and the following information will be downloaded as JSON files:

List of people that you follow

List of people that follow you

Items you have starred

Items you have liked

Items you have shared

Items shared by people you follow

Notes you have created

Items with comments

Click here to start downloading your Reader data from Takeout. Once downloaded, your subscription data should be easily transferrable to another product, where you can continue to keep up with your online reading.

Well, Screw RSS Then!

Well … not quite cause a lot of blogs I follow use RSS. So I need a replacement.

But wait! There’s an App for that! Or multiple actually …

For iPad RSS readers, the problem is that Google Reader was the easiest way to implement two core features: obtaining feed information and syncing. In Google’s absence, apps will need to tie into a different service, or create their own service. It is too early to say which solution most apps will choose, or which solution will ultimately prove to be more effective, as many of the options are still in development. Until Google Reader actually shuts down, it will be difficult to tell which apps will be “best” in a post-Google world. Nevertheless, here are my favorites:

Flipboard: Your Social News Magazine

Free!

Even though Flipboard never relied on Google Reader syncing, it is a great option for displaced Google users. That’s because Flipboard announced that Google Reader users who link their accounts with a Flipboard account will have access to their feeds and starred items immediately and in perpetuity, even after July 1. The feeds and folders in your Google Reader account can then become parts of your Flipboard, presented in the same visually-oriented, magazine style layout. Aside from the Google Reader implementation, Flipboard offers the ability to follow any RSS feed you enter, or browse through the app’s catalog of sources and content curated by Flipboard or its users. The one feature Flipboard lacks is a webapp so that you can view your feeds on a computer.