As you’ve probably heard by now, Google Reader’s official date of death will be Monday, July 1st (that’s TOMORROW). What does that mean? Well, if you use Google Reader to keep up with blogs and other sites that provide RSS feeds of their content, it means you had better important all of the feeds you follow into another reader, pronto! Otherwise, you’re going to forget what blogs you read and then you’ll wind up with a ton of free time on your hands that you might use to be more productive, and nobody wants THAT.
When the news that Google Reader was going down first broke, everyone started talking about Feedly and a bunch of other alternatives. I set up a Feedly account and imported my feeds, but ultimately I wound up settling on Bloglovin’ as my feed reader of choice. It’s really easy to use, the interface is nice to look at, and, best of all, it allows you to view blog posts in their “natural environment” — i.e., on the actual site itself, making it easier to comment and generally providing a prettier viewing experience.
Both Feedly and Bloglovin’ are providing one-click transfers to migrate feeds from Google Reader. It’s totally painless.
If you’re not already following Door Sixteen with a feed reader, you can find me here:
✚ Door Sixteen on Bloglovin’
✚ Door Sixteen on Feedly
Of course, if you’d prefer to use a different feed reader, you can grab my RSS feed here:
✚ Door Sixteen RSS feed
Got it? If you have any questions, ask away!
(The photo is of my landlord’s shop cat trying — and failing — to catch pigeons on the sidewalk. The pigeons aren’t even the tiniest bit afraid of the cat! They barely move when he pounces.)
11 Comments
Thanks for the recommendation, Anna! I started using Google Reader years ago because of you and have LOVED it. I didn’t know what I was going to do when I heard it was ending and never had time to figure out how to replace it. Cheers to hours of online reading!
I’m loving Feedly so far. I found Bloglovin’ a bit slower because, as you mentioned, they are viewed on the site itself.
Ah! Thanks for the reminder and the recommendation! I have been putting off making any switch but just signed up for BL!
Thanks for the tip Anna. Happy Canada Day from your friends to the north.
I had the same experience! I tried Feedly because of all the hype, but I didn’t like it. I went to Bloglovin, which I like because I can see everything as it was meant to be read and my feed is clean yet shows the perfect amount of preview for each post. Highly recommend!
Feedly is very nice to look at, but it makes me feel a little too detached from the blogs I’m reading. I was a huge fan of the “next” button in Google Reader that you could put in your bookmarks bar — it would just take you to the next unread blog post in your queue. I like seeing the design of the page the post is meant to be on! Bloglovin isn’t exactly the same, but the “older” button in their navbar accomplishes as much. I’m a fan!
Off topic but wanted to say I like to update. (And back on topic, I gave up on finding a reader a while ago when everything I tried took the content out of its original context. If someones taken the time to design a nice looking blog I’d like to appreciate the words and pictures in the way they intended.)
thats a huge cat!
I think that’s my fault — it’s not his best angle. 😉
Love the new look!
just wanted to thank you for the bloglovin’ recomendation. been searching for AGES for an alternative. also I love your blog. have been following quietly for a few years now.