Say Goodbye to Google Reader This Weekend
More than just the month of June will come to an end this weekend.
On Monday, Google Reader will also be no more.
“We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites,” Google said last March. “While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader. Users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with Google Takeout over the course of the next four months.”
Despite widespread public outcries over the last few months, the Internet search giant didn’t back down. And this weekend will be our last with the service.
As MMW reported last week, the looming closure of Google Reader is casting a huge shadow. And it isn’t yet clear which formerly competing service will step up and take the place of Google Reader in dominant fashion.
One RSS service in particular – Feedly – is attempting to do something more than just become an alternative service ready to capture Google Reader’s refugees.
Feedly recently released the Feedly Cloud, which creates a standalone web-based RSS reader app in addition to connecting all of your feeds into the cloud. From there, developers can hook up their own APIs for various purposes. Similar to Google Reader’s API, the idea is to allow Feedly’s work to power other readers and in fact the service is connecting into IFTTT right away at launch, and opening up other options for future apps and tools. This also means that Feedly is available in your web browser (previously, the app required a plugin or extension in your browser to work correctly) and can be pulled up from anywhere.
If you use Google Reader and haven’t chosen a new service to move to, Feedly is certainly a great alternative worth checking out.
