Alternative for Google Reader

Shyuan

Well-known member
Hi,

I heavily use Google Reader (especially web version and on Android devices). Unfortunately, Google is going to take it down from 1 July 2013 onwards. I tried looking for alternative (such as gReader and Feedly), but many of them act as a client of Google Reader. I thought of using Google Currents but it doesn't have web version. Is there any cross-platform RSS reader that you guys known of that doesn't need you to link to your Google Reader?

Thank you :)
 
I'm facing the same search. I was going to fall back on FeedDemon on the desktop, which I've been using for a long long time (although it struggles with a very large feed database) ... but the developer just announced he will be killing off that product at the same time as Google Reader.

I haven't had a chance to try any of the alternatives out there yet - from screenshots I've seen, most seem to focus on "pretty" rather than "fast and usable" like Reader was.

I use Reader every day, on my desktop, my mobile and my tablet. The web version even used to work well on my N900 - about the only thing I ever used it for!

I'm pretty annoyed they plan to just kill the product ... of course usage is down, they've effectively hidden the product for the past few years - nobody who doesn't already know about it is going to start using it if they never see it promoted.

I will post my findings if I locate a reasonable cross-platform alternative.
 
I haven't had a chance to try any of the alternatives out there yet - from screenshots I've seen, most seem to focus on "pretty" rather than "fast and usable" like Reader was.
I agreed with you. They are heading towards the magazine-like reader instead of simple and basic reader which I preferred more.

I will post my findings if I locate a reasonable cross-platform alternative.
Thank you :)
Good that they are doing something about it. And I think I should wait patiently since there are still 3 months' time to the kill of Google Reader. The other similar developers are going to do something I supposed.
 
None of the alternatives are good replacements =\.

I'll probably go back to the self-hosted script I was using: http://feedafever.com

I'll just need to buy a cheap shared hosting account just to host it though as it does get intensive with a ton of feeds.
 
While I have the attention of you RSS junkies :cool:...

What do you think of importing RSS articles into forums 'as a news section'

a) crazy / bad voodoo / bogus (ripping off the writers)
b) OK
c) Other (discuss)

Meanwhile I sincerely appreciate it and hope you find a good alternate RSS reading solutions soon..

Thanks
 
I've used them in the past, but most of my users didn't like it. So they're turned off for now. If I find a really good site that has awesome feeds, I may turn it on again. But for now, it's off.
 
While I have the attention of you RSS junkies :cool:...

What do you think of importing RSS articles into forums 'as a news section'

a) crazy / bad voodoo / bogus (ripping off the writers)
b) OK
c) Other (discuss)

I tried to turn it off on one of my forums but the users complained! I didn't think anyone was reading it, but there turned out to be a few members who avidly read the news sections every day.

It does artificially bump up your post count a bit, so might be worth pruning older posts occasionally, just to keep things under control.

So long as you don't go overboard, I think it can do well. The other thing I did (on my vB forum which I haven't converted to XF yet) was to install a plugin which allowed me to hide those news forums from "New Posts" searches so that RSS feeds didn't clutter the search results. Users then had to opt-in (by way of a user-initiated upgrade to a secondary user group) to then have the news feeds included in the searches.

This isn't really necessary though - most users who were interested just tended to browse the news forums manually and didn't want to see them in search results anyway.
 
None of the alternatives are good replacements =\.

I'll probably go back to the self-hosted script I was using: http://feedafever.com

I'll just need to buy a cheap shared hosting account just to host it though as it does get intensive with a ton of feeds.

Also using this

Took a lot of tweaks to get it functioning the way I used reader though, and the mobile interface is extremely heavy and awkward on android without even more tweaks.

This might be useful for someone, imports starred items from reader: https://github.com/darkimmortal/fever-google-starred-importer
 
Also using this

Took a lot of tweaks to get it functioning the way I used reader though, and the mobile interface is extremely heavy and awkward on android without even more tweaks.

This might be useful for someone, imports starred items from reader: https://github.com/darkimmortal/fever-google-starred-importer
I'm looking at making an Android app and a widget/Chameleon widget if my friend is up to it, or if I can find someone else who would do it :p.
 
I do exactly this, and then publish the news forum onto the homepage via Porta.

Ah thanks for the example, so you publish the RSS feed title, a few lines, and no photos.

Yeah, I think thats what I will settle on - perhaps just titles..

I have mixed feelings about running a front page that sends my visitors away... However, I am thinking with relevant forum topic centric news - the forum could provide a 'one stop shop". Thats the plan anyway - seems to be yours too..?

I would like a function on it - the ability to 'toss into the 'article feeds list' any article URL I feel might be of interest. I will try to get my developer to code this for me. That way - the front page news can be automated + have admin selected articles included too.
 
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