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Sunday, March 17, 2013

The end of Google Reader

I heard some news last week that had me pretty upset. Google Reader is shutting down as of July 1. My initial response was "Aaagh!  That's the end of the blogs I follow".  However, I did settle down and soon heard about a few options out there.  Some people say they just put the blogs they read on their sidebar and check them out that way.  That wouldn't work for me because, first - I read too many and second - I like being notified when they are updated.  I then heard about a few different sites, narrowed it down to 2 that would import right from my Google Reader and decided to check them out.



The first is bloglovin'.  I really like the look of this one, however it's had trouble with the influx of people from Google Reader and has been hard to get into.  It puts your blog list into alphabetical order, but I kind of like the groupings I can use with Google Reader.  



The other is Feedly.  It imports your feed and keeps your blogs in the same groups they were part of in Google Reader.  It has a few other things you can do - like change your background color, style of layout, type of organization.  You have to use Firefox for this one which is a problem if you use more than your own computer.  I'm leaning in this direction right now, but am trying both out for a bit to see which stands the test of time.

My friend Sandra, at Diary of a SAHM did a more in depth post with information on several sites.  You may want to check it out if you are still deciding what to do.

Do you use Google Reader, and if so - have you found a replacement yet?

15 comments:

Betsy Brock said...

I never use google reader...just have all the blogs on my sidebar. I have almost 100 there and it does update them as you post! Take a look at mine...they are in order of new posts and it tells when the last post was.

I'll be interested to hear how you like blogher or other options, though...seems like the nice things always get shut down! ha.

Kim, USA said...

Hi Mari, I did not know google reader will be out soon. Great information love it!

Nancy said...

I too heard this week and thanks for providing the information we need. I don't know what I am going to do yet....

Anonymous said...

I've been using Feedly. I like it, so far! I'll have to check out bloglovin, too. :) Thanks, Mari.

Life and Breath and Everything Else said...

Thanks for sharing these options with us. I hope you have a great week!

Le monde dÖ said...

I don't use it... so I'll come to visit you...

LL Cool Joe said...

I know I heard the news too, but I never use Google reader but I do read all new updates in my dashboard. Is that going too??

Kelly said...

Thanks for this information. I looked at something over a year ago, but can't remember now what it was. So...I'm trying out Bloglovin' on my laptop to see how I like it. If it works well, I'll probably put it on my phone as well.

Betty W said...

I'm goind to use feedly. Looks pretty user friendly and it's very easy to transfer over.

Heart2Heart said...

Mari,

Like some of your bloggers I use my side bar to follow and when I can, I use their email links if they have incorporated them, so I can catch up with most when I'm going through email first thing in the morning.

Knowing Google, they will probably migrate their subscribers to a new system. Hopefully that will be the case and you won't lose touch with anyone. Thanks for the awesome tips to find new ways to keep the communication going.

Love and Hugs ~ Kat

Jenny said...

I don't use Google reader ... all my faves are bookmarked and I see them in my what do you call it -- bar doohickey up at the top of my screen -- all the time. If like yours, Mari, the blog does not have a favicon but is the orange Blogger B, I put your initial beside it. The ones with favicons just sit there looking pretty. I probably don't read as many blogs as you, which makes me want to say, thanks again for reading mine.

Deanna said...

I think I am going to let the dust settle and see what everyone else is doing and who has the most success. Thanks for the info!!

Momma Roar said...

I'm loving feedly! :)

Brooke said...

we've still got a few months - i'm going to let people like you do the hard work for me! :P

Jean said...

I guess I need to hook up with one of these. I miss too many posts - like right now I just saw at least four or five of yours for the first time!!