Many news addicts such as myself have been in a little bit of a panic since Google’s announcement yesterday that it would shut down it’s popular Google Reader application as of July 1st of this year. It’s quickly scannable, two-paned interface makes reading and organizing hundreds of news sources a breeze and will be sorely missed by many, as evidenced by the outcry, protest petitions, and offers of cash that have ensued since the news broke.
My initial concern was backing up my data and finding an alternative that would allow me to import all my feeds without disruption. There are three which are very similar in look and functionality that I would recommend, however first I’ll explain how to grab your data from Google.
Archive Your Google Reader Data
1.) Sign into Google Reader and Click into “Learn More”.
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2.) Click to start downloading your file from Google Takeout.
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3.) Click “Create Archive”.
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4.) Download!
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5.) Unzip the file.
6.) Sign up with one of the services recommended below.
7.) Find the “Import” or “Import Feeds” option within your chosen app. (Netvibes shown below).
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8.) Navigate to the file called subscriptions.xml
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3 Google Reader Alternatives
Click for larger image.Netvibes now offers two different ways to view its interface – as a start page with widgets that can be dragged and dropped and viewed on the page, or in Reader view which is very similar to Google Reader’s interface. And users don’t have to decide on one, but can toggle between the two views. It was very quick and easy to import my subscriptions file from Google Reader.
Click for larger image.The design of Old Reader is very close to that of Google Reader and users are able to import their feeds from their old accounts.
Click for larger image.Newsblur also has a very similar interface to Google Reader and will be a good alternative for people with less than 64 feeds. Unlimited feeds are available for $1/month. Newsblur allows users to share feeds and stories with others.
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