Google Reader to Shut Down on July 1st

Mar 14, 2013 by Matt | Posted in Services and Tools One Comment

Google ReaderGoogle announced on Wednesday that Google Reader, the search giant’s RSS aggregator, will be discontinued on July 1st, 2013. Users have until then to export their subscriptions and other data with Google Takeout. This is likely a result of Larry Page’s “leaner Google,” which apparently has room for their ghost town of a social network, but not a service that fits right in with their core mission: cataloging the world’s information.

This is hitting third-party developers pretty hard, as a lot of other services and applications lean on the API. Feedly, for instance, uses it as their entire backend. They’re currently working on a project they call Normandy, which is clone of the Reader API for their own backend, and they plan to allow other developers access to it. Similarly, the developer of Reeder—my preferred RSS aggregator for iOS and OS X—is planning to find a new solution as well. (Unless I’m mistaken, Reeder only uses Google Reader for synchronizing subscriptions and unread items. The iOS version can already use Fever instead of Google Reader.)

For those who are looking for a new solution for reading RSS feeds, there are plenty of options out there. LifeHacker has compiled a few suggestions, both web-based services and desktop clients.

Perhaps the shuttering of Google Reader could be a good thing for developers of feed readers. Torpedoing an industry juggernaut usually does wonders for a field, enabling smaller companies to innovate without the dominant company controlling the market. The RSS reader arena was more lively before Google Reader took off. It would be nice to see a resurgence.

  • maria

    s you may have heard, Google Reader will be no more starting July 1. Unfortunately for many of us, the search giant has announced that it will shutter its much-maligned — though still widely used — RSS reader, which will no doubt leave many users in a tizzy, searching for other ways to subscribe to their favorite feeds. Sure, Google Reader may not have been the most beautifully designed product to come out of Mountain View, Calif., but it sure was convenient. And now that it’s going away, it’s evident just how valuable it has been.

    With that in mind, we’ve put together a list of what we think are the best replacements for the soon-to-be-late Google Reader. Plugged-in types won’t want to miss a beat once Google Reader sees its sunset, so getting familiar with these alternatives now could be key. An ideal RSS reader should be available on desktop computers and as native mobile apps for both iOS and Android. That’s what Google Reader brought to the table, and we tried our best to focus on similarly versatile services.

    With that said, if you’re the visual type, there are also options that read more like a magazine. If you prefer to flip through your news on a touch-screen mobile device, we like Pulse (iOS | Android), Flipboard (iOS | Android), and Google Currents (iOS | Android). And if you’re looking for a solely browser-based RSS reader, CNET’s Seth Rosenblatt has put together a nice roundup of standalone desktop software for your RSS reading pleasure on both Windows and Mac. http://unpsiquiatraonline.com finally, when you’re ready to make the jump, be sure to check out Ed Rhee’s post titled “How to export your Google reader data,” which highlights how to do just that using Google Takeout.