Oh no, Google is killing its RSS reader, now what

[donheff]

I was just notified by Google that it is killing it's RSS reader in July. I follow a couple of dozen blogs/forums with the Reader. I will still follow ERdotOrg one way or another but most of the blogs I follow need a summary feed like RSS or I won't bother with them. Any suggestions for where I should go for an alternative to Google Reader? But, even with an alternative I read an article that indicates that the big players are trying to dump RSS. Any thoughts on how to follow blogs and forums without a reader if RSS goes bye bye?

[rbmrtn]

It seems RSS just never caught on. I get tired of all the bloated videos, waiting for it load and play. I liked the RSS feeds for quickly following what I wanted.

Google Reader’s Death Is Proof That RSS Always Suffered From Lack Of Consumer Appeal | TechCrunch

Here's a list to pick through

Comparison of feed aggregators - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[JoeWras]

I did RSS for a while. I'm not sure why I broke the habit. I think it was because I was missing stuff that apparently was not making the RSS feed.

I wonder if advertising (lack of) is a factor in this? They can't push the videos and other stuff to you.

[ERD50]

Once again, procrastination pays off for me!

I kept meaning to set up RSS on my computer, but I didn't quite 'get it' in 15 seconds and I got distracted. On forums, I subscribe and get email updates, that works for me. I guess it would be good for blogs and other things, but I guess I'll never know.


-ERD50

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by donheff I was just notified by Google that it is killing it's RSS reader in July. I follow a couple of dozen blogs/forums with the Reader. I will still follow ERdotOrg one way or another but most of the blogs I follow need a summary feed like RSS or I won't bother with them. Any suggestions for where I should go for an alternative to Google Reader? But, even with an alternative I read an article that indicates that the big players are trying to dump RSS. Any thoughts on how to follow blogs and forums without a reader if RSS goes bye bye?

I use My Yahoo, and like it. It's the only way I will read blogs, cause I don't have to spend time looking at stuff I have no interest in. If it dies,I will likely quit reading blogs. Rarely is there anything that I am not happy enough to miss.

Ha

[bUU]

I use Microsoft Outlook, though the big news here, I fear, may be major content providers using the occasion as an excuse to do away with their feeds. RSS's greatest strength, from a readers' perspective, is its greatest curse from a major content providers' standpoint, as highlighted by rbmrtn:

Quote:

Originally Posted by rbmrtn I liked the RSS feeds for quickly following what I wanted.

The ability to focus on the content, to the exclusion of everything else meant it was more difficult for content providers to monetize their content through advertising.

[donheff]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ERD50 Once again, procrastination pays off for me! I kept meaning to set up RSS on my computer, but I didn't quite 'get it' in 15 seconds and I got distracted. On forums, I subscribe and get email updates, that works for me. I guess it would be good for blogs and other things, but I guess I'll never know. -ERD50

On the two forums I frequent I subscribe and get emails for threads I participate in but I still use the RSS reader to skim all new threads. I like being able to quickly skim through what comes up and decide whether to subscribe. With blogs, I am able to quickly skim the summaries and click through to the blog if an article interests me. Google's reader was well laid out for someone who only wants to skim sites they affirmatively choose to follow. Some of the substitutes I see are cluttered with crapola they throw up to enlighten you about interesting resources you don't know about --- that is a distracting PITA.

Quote:

Originally Posted by haha I use My Yahoo, and like it. It's the only way I will read blogs, cause I don't have to spend time looking at stuff I have no interest in. If it dies,I will likely quit reading blogs. Rarely is there anything that I am not happy enough to miss. Ha

I will take a look at MyYahoo and see what it offers. I already have it since I have a Yahoo email account.

[ERD50]

OK, now I see that my Thunderbird email supports RSS. Maybe I'll give it a try.

-ERD50

[savory]

I just set up Feedly. Google Reader migrated as part of the set-up. I have only used it for a few minutes when I saw this thread. As with everything new, it will take a little getting use to. It seems intuitive and well designed. While I moved my reader information to Google Takeout, I did not need to use it for the transition to Feedly.

[JoeWras]

Quote:

Originally Posted by haha I use My Yahoo, and like it. It's the only way I will read blogs, cause I don't have to spend time looking at stuff I have no interest in. If it dies,I will likely quit reading blogs. Rarely is there anything that I am not happy enough to miss. Ha

NICE!

Thanks haha! This is why I hang out at ER.org. I never knew My Yahoo had this capability. I use it for other stuff (and hopefully it won't go away), and now added RSS. I really like the presentation compared to Google Reader anyway. Google reader is going off my Tab list now.

[CCdaCE]

Enter the meme. Caution: language, Hitler, etc.

Hitler finds out Google Reader is shutting down - YouTube

-CC

[veremchuka]

Hitler has a lot of videos! I've stumbled across them like this one from time to time when looking at other stuff. I never realized he had so many opinions about so many things!

Anyway I AM PI$$ED as usual, 1st DST now THIS .

But wait... I use Yahoo! as my web based email client and frankly I never knew or grasped what MyYahoo! is. I've seen that page from time to time but I ignore it as all I want is my email and I only see it if I were to log out of email which I rarely do. So I just went through Google Reader and changed all my RSS feeds to use MyYahoo! Small learning curve but as long as this works and I get the feeds I read once a week then I'm happy. As the 1st comment in that link said, well never mind, you read what 72616a said! I agree.

[donheff]

Quote:

Originally Posted by veremchuka Hitler has a lot of videos! I've stumbled across them like this one from time to time when looking at other stuff. I never realized he had so many opinions about so many things! Anyway I AM PI$$ED as usual, 1st DST now THIS . But wait... I use Yahoo! as my web based email client and frankly I never knew or grasped what MyYahoo! is. I've seen that page from time to time but I ignore it as all I want is my email and I only see it if I were to log out of email which I rarely do. So I just went through Google Reader and changed all my RSS feeds to use MyYahoo! Small learning curve but as long as this works and I get the feeds I read once a week then I'm happy. As the 1st comment in that link said, well never mind, you read what 72616a said! I agree.

i pasted a few into my yahoo to see how the display looks. Is there a way to automatically transfer all the feeds over?

[Onward]

One of the things (the main thing?) that killed RSS is Twitter. I moved to Twitter and subscribed to all my favorite blogs' Twitter feeds, arranged into groups.

It ends up being like a RSS reader, though I haven't found a way to mark posts (tweets) as already read by me.

New blogs are probably more likely to have a Twitter feed than an RSS feed these days, so it was time for me to switch. Google Reader's shutting down just gave me the extra nudge to do it.

[donheff]

So does Twitter show the first 140 letters of a post or just a title? Does it dump all posts on you or just new threads like an RSS reader?

[Onward]

I'm a Twitter neophyte, so it probably does things I don't know about. So far I haven't been able to get it to distinguish between the tweets I've read and the ones I haven't. It shows all tweets, starting with the most recent.

Each one is 140 characters max, though many contain links to, say, full blog posts.

So far it's an imperfect substitute for an RSS reader, but I'm hoping it will get better as the site evolves and as I get better at using it.

[Stanley]

Is there a twitter feed for this forum?

[Onward]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stanley Is there a twitter feed for this forum?

Not that I can find.

[veremchuka]

Quote:

Originally Posted by donheff i pasted a few into my yahoo to see how the display looks. Is there a way to automatically transfer all the feeds over?

I did not have more than 7 or 8 so I just did them manually. There is a method using the Google Takeout Reader page. You export and import them if I understand this. Look at this article Google Reader Is Shutting Down; Here Are the Best Alternatives

for an explanation how to do this.

[donheff]

I have looked at several replacements and so far Feedly seems the best for my use. It pulls all of my Google Reader feeds and says it has a smooth transition plan to take over from Google with no action on my part. The interface is nice (magazine like and changeable) and shows me all feeds that have unread articles as well as the number unread. I hope Google's abandonment doesn't signal the demise of RSS. Twitter and Facebook just don't do it for me.