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Sunday, June 23, 2013

Lit Corner: Google Reader Retires, What Can Replace It?

As of July 1st, Google will retire its Google Reader program. The Friend Connect and Follower feature on Blogspot blogs will also disappear along with it. It's a favorite widget among Blogspot bloggers; one of the first pieces of encouragement many of us give each other is to click our avatar into place. The connection between the two services has been like a friendlier RSS.

What are you looking for to replace the service? If you're not looking for a Google Reader or Friend Connect replacement, why?

While the Google Friend Connect widget is also like a popularity badge, it never got on my nerves. It was particularly nice to see if other friends liked a blog as well. It seemed like such an efficient way to add something to your feeds, and Google did the legwork for you.

J.A. Bennett pointed me toward Bloglovin, which offers to important all of your Google Reader preferences with a log-in. It's been scoped out and lasted long enough to prove it isn't a scam. Signing up and importing my bookmarks took all of two minutes, and they offer an array of buttons to throw onto your blog so others can follow you. I'm testing one out on the upper right today. How does it look? None are as personal - the counter of followers itself feels more aggrandizing than Friend Connect's tiles of faces.

I picked the pink button because pink is bad ass.

A few articles have buzzed about Feedly playing successor to Google Reader. It seems slightly neater than Bloglovin, and certainly more reminiscent of Reader's presentation. That import jaunt took ten seconds, and it services other kinds of sites too, including Youtube. It's definitely worth having a look as it feels tighter, even though Bloglovin's site is technically more minimalistic.

But neither is as convenient as Reader could be for my routine. When I logged in to make this post, I had Reader set up to show me all the recent posts on my dashboard. It was blogging inlaid with blogging, perfect timing and synchronized. If someone knows how to wedge such functionality back into the program after July 1st using any service, I'll be keenly interested.
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12 comments:

  1. mooderinoJune 23, 2013 at 4:55 AM

    I'm using bloglovin (that's how I got here today). Getting used to it. Tried Feedly but found it annoying. Google are such a pain.

    mood

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. John WiswellJune 23, 2013 at 10:01 AM

      They can be, especially once they tinker with things we rely on. Their reasoning was that not enough people used Google Reader?

      Delete
  2. Alex J. CavanaughJune 23, 2013 at 8:25 AM

    I'm using both although I like Feedly better.
    I keep hearing conflicting news about GFC though, so not sure it is vanishing. Bummer if it does.

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    Replies
    1. John WiswellJune 23, 2013 at 10:00 AM

      It'd be very nice if it didn't go away! Where did you read the rebuff?

      Delete
  3. Katherine HajerJune 23, 2013 at 11:18 AM

    I'm using Feedly on my phone, and a Linux-only reader on my laptop.

    The follow thing I will not miss one whit. Some my main blog started in April 2008, I have collected a grand total of five followers. Meanwhile, my Friday Flash posts average 75-100 page hits, and non-Friday Flash posts get about 30. So it doesn't seem the number of followers correlates very well. I've followed a lot more people than that.

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    1. John WiswellJune 23, 2013 at 12:39 PM

      I don't see the widget on your blog. Where is it? I felt bad at first because I didn't remember joining, and I surely would have.

      Delete
    2. Katherine HajerJune 23, 2013 at 10:53 PM

      You don't need the widget to follow -- but hey, if it's going away, it's all academic anyhow.

      Delete
  4. Sonia LalJune 23, 2013 at 11:54 AM

    I never really had friend connect, being on WordPress instead of blogger. But feedly feels like pretty good replacement for Google reader so far. I wonder if I can use bloglovin for WordPress? Sounds interesting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. John WiswellJune 23, 2013 at 12:40 PM

      I'm pretty sure that Bloglovin works on Wordpress. It ought to have similar HTML widget-works.

      Delete
  5. Tim VanSant WritesJune 23, 2013 at 5:14 PM

    I never got into FC, but I loved Reader. I looked at several alternatives and tried a couple of them. I've been using The Old Reader for the last few weeks and I'll probably stick with it.

    BTW, Anyone who hasn't exported their Reader data yet should do so. That file can be imported into any of the alternatives I've looked at.

    I was also reminded a couple weeks ago about Protopage. It's not, strictly speaking, a Reader replacement, but it lets you create a tabbed page filled with widgets for notes, news, RSS feeds, and other services. People who liked iGoogle might like it. I tried it a few years ago [and to be honest, I didn't know they were still around] but maybe it's time to play with it again.

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  6. Elephant's ChildJune 23, 2013 at 5:58 PM

    I am going to have to check out bloglovin - thank you. Google is far too good at fixing what isn't broken...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Helen A. HowellJune 24, 2013 at 3:17 AM

    I'm really backwards with all this stuff, never used google reader or RSS I tend to subscribe by email to the blogs I follow. I don't see a pink button though, am I not looking in the right place? OOh I see it but still am confused about what bloglovin is, its as strange as google reader and RSS to me.

    ReplyDelete