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Google Reader Being Retired
Edgewood_Dirk writes "According to the official blog, Google Reader is being retired on July 1st, 2013. The main reasoning seems to be its decline in usage over the last few years. Users and developers will be able to retrieve their RSS data using Google Takeout."
For what it's worth ...
https://www.change.org/petitions/google-keep-google-reader-running
Refugees are already saying that http://theoldreader.com/ is the replacement.
I'm super unhappy about this, I use google reader every day and Google Currents is no alternative. Which alternatives do people like?
If you close down Reader and iGoogle in the same year, you are seriously going to upset me. Don't do it.
A decline in usage? I'm pretty sure many people use it, and I personally use it quite a lot. It's a good alternative to client-based RSS readers, and I don't think Google should retire it.
I'm going to miss Google Reader. Anyone know a good replacement? I need browser based reader with IOS support that lets me navigate using the keyboard.
Really what I want is gnus running in a browser, but that's not gonna happen...
Google Reader is my way to keep track of whats going in the world from a wide variety of sources.
I hope that is another viable alternative, because I do not want to go back to the bad old days of checking sites individually.
They removed all of the sharing features and tried to replace it with a half-hearted Google+ integration. All of the people I know who used it stopped using it shortly afterwards.
I hate when Google does this!
When they say it is declining, I wonder if they mean the web site only, or if they include all the apps out there that use it as their storage mechanism. The major loss here is that google reader is the standard. I can use half a dozen different RSS readers and know they all synch with Google Reader, and I can swap between them. Oh, and I know if one day I only have web access, Google's own web interface is pretty nice too.
Don't do it Google! I realize that Reader probably doesn't benefit you much directly, but it's a super important part of "the Google experience".
I was a satisfied user of Bloglines for many years until it was overtaken and crippled by some Internet business. I reluctantly switched to Google Reader which had many shortcomings (e.g. no really persistent "keep unread" feature), but I got used to it because it was the only usable web RSS reader left.
Any now Google is killing this one as well. Thank you very much. Not.
That my Google Reader widget will stop working on my iGoogle page?
Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.
I realize that Google Reader probably did not make enough money, and/or drive enough traffic, to justify its continued existence. But I spend more time on Google Reader than any other website, by a considerable margin, and I'll miss it.
I'd even pay, if they offered it as a subscription service for a nominal fee.
"Oh, you didn't use Buzz and you aren't using Google+?
Well, now we're closing something you actually use!
That will show you to belittle our products!"
I have just moved back to Linux from OS X, RSS and Google Reader is on the way out, so it looks like I'll be reading mailing lists instead, and I'm posting on Slashdot again.
Are there any good standalone readers? I have some feeds that are behind our company's firewall because they contain sensitive information. I've tried feedburner, sage plugin for firefox, etc. None do a great job searching and filtering. In fact, so far, Internet Explorer seems to have one of the nicest displays for rss feeds.
Google Reader used to have some useful features which they actually removed in hopes of pushing people to Google+. Didn't really work, usage declined, now they're killing it.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
... the only reason I have and log into a Google account.
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Several of the alternative web rss readers sites (like NewsBlur) are having trouble coping with the amount of people checking for good alternative web based rss readers. I suppose that they will manage to scale with time, but at the moment of the google announcement should had been hard to access.
Seriously guys. This sucks.
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
I hate you with all my heart now...
I say we start a class action suit and demand our money back. In fact, I want at least twice the money I've paid them back...
go my.yahoo.com, click on +content, then Add RSS feed.
https://twitter.com/balajinix/status/312011243315683328/photo/1
From Samuel Clay's twitter posts today - https://twitter.com/NewsBlur. Remember, NewsBlur is 100% open-source (web, iOS apps, Android). Follow @samuelclay on GitHub: http://github.com/samuelclay. Today's not such a hot day in terms of speed, but the next three months will be full throttle. I was preparing to launch the re-design in TWO weeks, not today. I'm spinning up more servers to handle the onslaught.
I had put a lot of time into Google Notebook. I was using it to maintain a very active log of technical documentation. I carefully choose tags to make it easy to find the information I needed quickly, and I spent a lot of time pruning the information to keep it clean. Then Google said they were no longer going to develop Notebook.
I started using Google Reader to catalog technical articles. Once again, putting a lot of time/thought into tagging and notes to make it as useful as possible. Now Google is dropping Reader.
If the product is not making enough money from data/ads, then at least give people the opportunity to pay for it. I would gladly pay for Notebook and/or Reader!
Should I put the time and effort into gmail? Is that the next Google product to just disappear?? After being burnt twice, I will be thinking carefully before putting a lot of effort into a free Google product.
Google pretty much demonstrates the iron-cast reason why you shouldn't move your apps to the cloud every time they have another round of "cleaning."
I never upgraded to Google Reader because I am an old faithful clinging to my desktop apps (I use and love Vienna on OS X). I'm not surprised they're shutting it down - it again re-iterates why it is better to be in control of your own data!!
That said, I have tried repeatedly to find an iPad app that mimics Vienna's behaviour and almost all iPad apps want to use Google Reader. Obviously sync of reads would be great, but I'd even take non-synced if there was actually a decent iPad app that could load an XML file of RSS feeds.
There is a huge hole for a iPhone/iPad/OS X/(even web-based) syncing RSS reader. Does NetNewsWire do it? Last time I tried their desktop app I didn't really like it but I still have a thirst for RSS and this whole google story has just re-iterated that for me.
Why the hell does TheOldReader not have an API? "We're working on an iOS app" just doesn't cut it for the kind of crazy weirdos (like me) that use Google Reader.
I mean, hell, even on my Nokia N9---a platform stabbed and left to die bleeding by the side of the road---there are multiple Google Reader syncing RSS clients. That's what I want Google Reader for, as a central sync repository for my RSS feed reading (some on a desktop at home, some on a desktop at work, some on a tablet, some on a phone, some on my e-reader, etc etc). If sites like TheOldReader are just a website and, at best, an app or two they write themselves for a few of the largest platforms then they're nearly as useless to me as Google Reader will soon be.
NewsBlur seems slightly better in that their apps for the mainstream platforms already exist, but that's still extremely weak compared to the flexibility of interface and location that the current Google Reader + APIs have allowed for.
I remember sigs. Oh, a simpler time!
I've switched to Bamboo, a firefox extension. So far, I'm thinking it's very much like google reader. So far, I'm happy.
Feedly seems to be the best alternative if you've become accustomed to using Google Reader. It synchronizes itself with Google Reader (or it will until July). It even has some the same keyboard shortcuts. Transitioning is seamless; it uses Google's OAuth to gain access to your Google account and pull in all your feeds & tags.
It looks like the app is a little slow right now as they are dealing with the surge in demand.
http://blog.feedly.com/2013/03/14/google-reader/
-Shawn "If the Name Don't Rhyme It Ain't Mine" Conn
They just added a "Import from Reader" Dialog - smart ...
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If you're looking for an alternative to skim headlines please give Skim.Me a try (what a great name! ha). We're a startup releasing another version soon to help you keep up at a glance.
Immediately after seeing the original post from the Google Reader blog, I started looking for a solution. It seems that practically every RSS program or service out there actually uses Google Reader as a centralized syncing platform.
I read news through RSS feeds at different computers throughout the day and on different OSes. The ability for a service to synchronize between all the places I access the feeds is paramount in a replacement. Thus, all those services which use Google Reader for syncing purposes will break once Google shuts down Reader, so, sadly, they are not a viable option as things stand right now.
I do like some of the alternatives posted by other commenters; I'll check out some of them when I have the time. I also signed the petition in one of the first comments above — it may have no effect, but it's worth trying, I suppose.
Damnit, I read this article using reader.
Anyone know of an RSS feed reader for Android besides Google Reader that handles mouseover text (aka alt text)?
Officially request on behalf of citizens of the United States that Google REVERSE it's decision to shut down READER!
Yes we can!
Google Reader was the last web app I use, and Google decided to cement the reason why I moved to local apps in the first place. So with Google finally abandoning me and fellow Reader users, what Linux replacements are there? I'm trying out Liferea at the moment, going to see how that works out.
Sayonara Google, it's been fun.
Yeah, and critical features like having more than 64 feeds and full text view are premium only.
Hate that just brought a new app for Google Reader and now they cancel it!
Should they now ban all new sales of Google Reader apps on the the app store?
I just went and deleted my Google+ account in protest of this and I would suggest that others do also. You are given an opportunity to tell Google why you are leaving Google+ and it seems to me there is no better place to sound off on this incredibly stupid decision to kill Reader.
If I EVER see one of your cars in my neighborhood, it's over.
I'm starting to feel like the odd one out.
I use both google.com/ig and google.com/reader daily. In fact those two tabs are my default home page.
TF? So does this mean my droid gReader 3rd party app will stop working July 1 as well? i.e. this is a Google complete back-end shutdown...? :-/
'Currents' looks like a piss-poor replacement if I can't even get local top newspaper feeds...seriously Google???
http://googleblog.blogspot.in/2005/10/feed-world.html
See all my data management is taken care of for me. It's just like giving your valuables to a maid to throw down a disposal. Finding an iOS reader that doesn't require a Google Reader account is nigh impossible.
With everything being in the cloud, what if the cloud is gone someday. The google reader is just an example here.
If google reader is just a desktop app, we can happily conitnue to use it even it is abandoned.
But if it is in the cloud, we are screwed.
The plain and simple truth is that Facebook style usage is more valuable or at least perceived as more valuable. RSS consumption is too passive by nature. Even when it did have the ability to 'share' items with friends (before trying to force those people over to Google plus), comments and notes were rare and an existing article was pretty much required before any discussion would happen (yes, you could create a note and share without an article attached, but the UI design didn't really encourage that usage. Now with even that removed, Google doesn't extract a lot of value from the users. It is a respectable implementation, but not a profitable one.
I personally plan to explore self-hosted solutions. I intended to when google reader dropped the share feature, but was too lazy and it still worked fine as a standalone reader.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
After messing around for an hour trying NewsBlur to work, I exported my RSS data from Google Reader and imported it to Thunderbird. Bye bye Google Reader.
Google kills reader while plowing money into google+, a much less useful service.
So I killed my google+ account in protest.
It's one thing to shut down a product that is didn't make it out of the gate (e.g., Buzz), but it's another to shut down a product that is considered to be the premier product in its space.
I've been using Google products for a long time, and have understood most of their shutdowns. I used to think that as long as the service wasn't "experimental", it'd stick around. But going forward, I have 0 trust, since obviously even having the #1 product isn't enough.
Does this mean that Google will finally shut down that G+ nonsense that hardly anyone uses? Or, better still, Blogger? (Or is the add revenue generated from people refreshing their own pages enough to justify its continued existence?)
More than 12 feeds, actually (from what I just experienced). Dropped it pretty quickly.
This kind of thing is one of the reasons I made that Marge Simpson murmur when my last company's head of IT declared that we were Googleizing. Part of Google's pitch is to list the huge number of apps and tools they have available. Trouble is, you can deeply integrate those apps into your company's procedures, then Google decides to clean house and discontinue something that's become critical to your company and there's not a damn thing you can do about it.
...Of all the ridiculous things I've heard today...
Looks like tt-rss.org is suffering the slashdot effect... maybe because Google Reader sunset!
One of their reasons to retire GR is to focus their efforts. No effort has gone into GR for the last few years. Why not just keep it? The cost is nil.
It's a relic from an age where fetching page headers only had a hefty financial and bandwidth incentive. It fascinates me that people are still clinging to it.
I've used Google Reader for so long I don't even think I remember how to use individual websites. We used to use....they were called bookmarks weren't they?
Statistics as always ruin everything.
So usage is declining. But who continues to use Google Reader? Everyone who leads the social web, as evident by this story exploding everywhere. Google retiring Reader got more press than any Google innovation got in years.
Maybe Google should use the statistics of attention and rage rather than usage for deciding this one.
Google Reader is by far my most used service/website. I really wouldn't know where to go to if Google Reader would be taken offline. There is no comparable other service out there.
I don't understand why they think that usage is declining.
It's not like there's apparently an abundance of alternatives, or else I wouldn't be seeing so many people here asking for one.
So what's really going on, exactly?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
My homepage is google reader. So I move my homepage to a new tool - thats one level of separation from google. Not quite so easy to get to plus, calendar, gmail, etc - so maybe it might enter my head one day to not use them anymore.........
This is an interesting decision for an advertising company.
Host your own if you don't like the fee. How is this model any different from wordpress.org/.com? Relying on "free" services where the provider has no contractual obligations is the very basis of the problem with Google shitcanning Reader without giving users the *choice* to move to a paid model or, heaven forbid, open sourcing the code. Oh right, Google's core platform code is proprietary, my bad for thinking that they could eat their own dogfood and at least provide the *option* for users to re-deploy Google products (or their open-sourced anaogues) on Google's own AppEngine platform.
Jeroen Heijster yeah I was a google super fan! I've had every google phone except the galaxy nexus. Currently have nexus 4. I have the acer chromebook. i'm writing this in chrome on windows 7. I have a google voice number. A youtube channel that I feed content to. And my most used internet places are google.com, google reader, and gmail.
But these days my enthusiasm for google is all but gone.
Google Chrome has gotten so buggy on my windows 7 machine that i have to use opera most of the time, which i like but doesn't have google voice integration. Which is an extension for chrome made by google that seems to never get updated and while i like it, it has some rough edges and has for awhile. google voice on android is like a second class citizen of google apps and I wouldn't be surprised if that got killed before long. The notifications don't sync, you can't swipe from message to message, can't add contact from the number bar, things that have all been added to gmail awhile ago, (and gmail was behind the times when it got it's updates.)
My google nexus 4 is a fast nice phone but I can't stand how they handicap me with an 8gb phone (16gb's were sold out bought it day 1, why make an 8gb phone these days?!) They do this to force you to use their cloud services so freaking annoying when companies pull that crap. That's the kind of stunt that just kills a fan off. Also, taking pictures in low light on the nexus 4 sux and the flash is almost useless blowing out whatever it's taking a photo of. Apple wouldn't have let this through. So since 12 hours of day is darkness that means i have a crappy camera on my phone half the time. A crappy camera phone with a cracked glass back i should mention.
Google drive seems like a good idea but it is a pain in the ass to use compared to how simple drop box is laid out. Plus, it crashes when I try to share videos. had to stop using it and switch back to drop box.
They are forcing google plus down our throats which I can't seem to want to use other than the auto upload picture from my phone thing that I think I like. Or do I like it cause I don't have enough space on my phone to keep all my pictures on my phone?
So they push g+ on me, then kill an application I use 10 times a day, google reader. So there goes another chunk of goodwill google's got with me.
after innovating on price with the chromebooks they come out with a $1500 netbook that has a touch screen but no usb 3.0 or ntfs support! Google I know you can't wait till 2050 when data only exists on your servers but guess what! we ain't there yet! let us use hard drives!
Just seems like google is making it harder and harder to be a fan. Or like george w. said after he won re-election, They've built up some political capitol and they're ready to spend it. Maybe they really will concentrate their energies and make better products thanks to killing things like google reader.
Or maybe Canonical or Mozilla can come out of the dark horse position with some products next year and make me a fan of a tech company again. Cause google seems to have jumped the shark.
I will say I do like google apps and google maps. Navigation on my phone is great. But it's not 2010 anymore, that's on everyone's phone now.
.
I just attempted to download my Google reader data. I starred all sorts of important items. If I scroll through Google reader I can see them going back well before last year but when I download the data, it does not go back that far. They are not providing you with all the data for your starred items from the beginning of your account.
Seriously guys, don't rely on third parties. If something is important to you, make it yourself!
I thought all serious slashdotters used GNUS for RSS feeds. Works great and you can customize it.
I've seen so many "Fuck you Google" said today I'm beginning to think Google has officially transitioned into being the new Microsoft.
What am I supposed to do on the internet now?!
My daily browsing habits consist almost entirely of opening Chrome and going straight for my Reader app; that's it. Even my YouTube Subscriptions come through to Reader. I don't want to go back to visiting every single individual web site and hoping for updates... *sigh* Why Google? *whimper*
- Disgruntled 'Anonymous Coward'
NewsBar for Mac works fine without Google Reader, will release iOS version with full sync in next weeks.
https://itunes.apple.com/app/newsbar/id440472232?mt=12
Hitler finds out ..
i'm giving http://feedafever.com/ a chance
Does it handle having hundreds of unread articles well? I have a "gaming" folder which receives about 1000 new posts every week, and I scroll them through quickly on weekends, actually reading maybe 5-10 articles, the rest - headlines are enough. Reader handles this fine and doesn't crash the browser.
The features that I love in Google Reader are:
1) Keeps unread messages nicely, I can come back to site monthly or hourly, doesn't matter. Even some offline readers I tried in the past screw this up...
2) No crap, just the RSS
3) Free (although I pay actual money to Google in form of storage space, please let me pay to you also to keep reader alive, if just in maintenance mode)
Many people seem to use Reader also as their central hub for feeds, and use an app on Android/iPhone/WP to access it - for me only the web is important, but others seem to like the API and 3rd party readers too.
I was unhappy with Google Reader, so I built my own web-based RSS reader called Feed Fiend (http://feedfiend.com). It is simple, without all the useless bells and whistles-- just news. It also has a one-click subscribe tool that makes it easy to find new feeds. So yes, this is my own site, and yes, I do plan to make money from it. But if you want an alternative, it is available. I have been up all night telling people about it, because I sincerely believe it is a great alternative. Go give it a try. Aaron Wright FeedFiend.com
Which just returns an error message after giving them access to your feeds on Google. Yeah, they are probably being slashdotted right now and it will go away, but using a service which fails right at signup - umm....no thanks.
For fk sakes - Why don't they try and make some of the services charged before retiring them! Even $10 a year from each member might be significant enough to run the platform.
I highly recommend turning your RSS items into emails. You can then read them from any IMAP client (or via webmail), and you get synchronization for free.
There's at least one web-based service that'll do this for you (feed2mail), but I've had good success with running feed2imap as a cron job.
(Disclaimer: I wrote my own feed2imap-like tool, which is what I'm actually using now. It's not ready for public consumption, though.)
These are mine:
From your 70 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 27,138 items, clicked 184 items, starred 11 items, and emailed 0 items.
Since March 21, 2012 you have read a total of 300,000+ items.
NewsBlur seems to be slashdotted at the moment
Damn, never used Google Reader before, but reading your comments makes me want to use it.
Newsblur works great, I just imported RSS feeds from reader and it worked great. Reader is generally more polished, but Newsblur is a little less crufty.
I can understand the disappointment, but why do so many nerds feel like they're absolutely screwed as a result? There are a huge number of alternatives. Any iOS or Android device has more RSS-reader apps than you can shake a stick at (I use RSSDemon and like it). Firefox has their "live bookmarks," the Opera browser handles RSS feeds expertly, Linux users have akregator and a couple of others. If you're a nerd with a website, install rawdog and create your own reader (I made one at http://www.therandymon.com/rawdogger.html with the feeds I like to read) or try something like CURN (http://therandymon.com/content/view/188/98/, a small java app you can run on your own machine and that can either create an HTML feed for you or email the results anywhere you want them.
I love RSS and use it extensively, on many platforms. I never quite got Google Reader but for me it wasn't as good as a dedicated app. The fact that GoogleReader is going down the tubes doesn't mean the end of civilization, people: there are a lot of alternatives. Maybe nothing quite the same (yet!) but soon. And anyway, if it was so good, there's a niche open now for an enterprising geek to whip up something similar and make some money. Hopefully that geek will create something that doesn't include all that social-networky horsecrap.
If this were Usenet, I'd killfile the lot of you.
Burned by this too. They advertise 64 feeds, but it is actually "12 sites". Which is not told before you get a nag screen telling that you have to disable some of your feeds because the limit is "12 sites".
I will gladly pay for a good service, but please don't use deceptive terms like this, it just makes you jerks.
I got it working by manually exporting my feed subscriptions from Google Takeout. The real bummer came when my pretty moderate use (33 feeds) does not fit in to their "64 feeds" policy which only allows "12 sites". As I said in another comment - I will gladly pay for a good service. But this kind of double-talk makes me wonder what else they are not saying directly and openly.
I like everyone else is upset at this. One of the best Google services shut down - obviously their target audience is not me. There just isn't a good replacement for a web-based service such as this (see all the points previously stated) making an Android/iOS app a poor fit, and even standalone desktop applications poor (especially the go away for a few days and all the feeds are picked up part).
I am at the point that I will happily close my Google Plus account (don't really use it) as a protest vote if someone is organising something like this (Occupy Google Plus anyone?)
I hope everyone can sign one of the 3 petitions:
* Whitehouse - https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/officially-request-behalf-citizens-united-states-google-reverse-its-decision-shut-down-reader/VRZTd72L
* Change.org #1 - https://www.change.org/petitions/google-keep-google-reader-running
* Change.org #2 - http://www.change.org/petitions/google-please-don-t-kill-google-reader
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I am a Google Reader and I am not retiring anytime soon.
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I've had a Reader tab pinned open in my browser, at all times, for years.
They have prepared for this by coding a clone of Google Reader, even implementing the API (for others to use as well). This should be great news for other apps depending on Google Reader. http://blog.feedly.com/2013/03/14/google-reader/ I've been a Feedly user for many years, give it a shot, it's great!
I accept that Google knows their own metrics and usage is declining, but am surprised no-one in marketing asked - what *kind* of users are the ones who still use Reader? Because the answer is - evangelizers. Sophisticated technology users who find RSS incredibly useful. More broadly, folks that love their technology, and many who see Google as a great technology company. This is in practice, if not intent, a narrow-beam fuck you to those folks. Oops.
I would gladly pay google to let me keep using Reader.
Does anyone else see the name Google Takeaway appearing on the Google login page? Or is that just because I'm in the UK? Seems a bit daft either way.
IMO: this is a real problem with using any google service, other than the search engine.
You never know when Google is going to pull the rug out from under you. Google does this sort of thing all the time. How can we trust any service from Google?
Corporations have more effect over our everyday lives than the government, so why shouldn't we petition them? Sure not every issue is of the same level of importance, but there's room for lots of petitions on Change.org so why not let everyone have their say?
By the way, it seems whiny and self-entitled to complain about petitions you don't personally agree with. Just find another petition you do want to support.
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
It is too bad they are retiring igoogle and google reader, the two things I have as my start pages because they work so well without interruptions.
But I guess those interruptions is how google makes money and they want to force users onto those other platforms.
...I see a way you can woo me back.
From your 88 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 8,594 items, clicked 518 items, starred 1 items, and emailed 0 items.
Since March 28, 2012 you have read a total of 92,192 items.
If only "common" sense was actually that common...
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I can't think of a worse possible tribute to open web supporter and RSS pioneer Aaron Swartz than this. Nice one Google, why don't you take a shit on his grave while you're at it.
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
... here
So far, Feedly seems to work fine for me.
That is all.
They did it with Wave. Not sure how feasible it is, but worth a shot. https://www.change.org/petitions/google-open-source-google-reader?utm_campaign=action_box&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=share_petition
One appropriate way Google can respond to this outrage is to make source code available and let the FOSS community handle this. Even better projects can be developed based on the code and people who don't want to rely on Google can always host their own private reader. By time, Google can even earn the extra reputation for doing this. Everyone is happy.
Why even bother using the next Google app? They just end of life the ones I use every day.
Tell me about your robot glasses, no really, I'm listening.
One feature that Reader has, and no other service I've found can match, is historical feed data.
When I discover a new podcast, I like to go back and listen to their old episodes. Reader makes this possible and easy; I can go back and look at very old articles that aren't even listed in the live feed any more.
For example, This American Life only keeps the latest three episodes in their feed; but using Reader, I can go back an arbitrary distance into the past. (I'm sure there's a limit to the history somewhere, but I'm not inclined to go looking for it.) I assume Reader is taking advantage of Google's cache in order to achieve this.
I just tried theoldreader on a recommendation above, and it also has a buffer, but it only goes back 20 episodes.
There are other similar services, but this is the killer feature of Reader for me. Very disappointed to see it go.
I use the pyrfeed Google Reader API to aggregate categories of other sites' RSS/Atom feeds to my personal website. Basically, Google Reader is a aggregator, feed subscriber, database, and single API/XML for my website.
https://code.google.com/p/pyrfeed/wiki/GoogleReaderAPI
Do any of the web-based aggregators people are suggesting here offer a similar API?
Its probably just a matter of time before they get rid of Picasa, so I am forced to move my albums to G+. And I pay for extra space too!
How strange it is to be anything at all
Good move. Maybe someday you'll quit using corporate-sourced products who can pull the plug/support at any moment.
I just don't understand why people can't just use another reader. I use a gnome one. There are also readers for KDE and othe rlinux platforms. I guess Windows has hundreads of RSS readers.
A lot of them have browser integration and cloud syncing. Heck. Just install one of a docen RSS readers for firefox and use their sync support.
But... the future refused to change.
There Is No Alternative To Google Reader, Period.
If there is one, it's to host it yourself (that provided you can run Cronjob properly - Godaddy no).
Here is a solution ... How about I buy a good hosting facility and let you guys sync whatever and whenever you want ?
Let me know.
Meanwhile, I am boycotting everything Google except search and email (will dump them eventually) ... I don't believe in supporting Bully Thief that also ensorses Inhumanty - Google (is evil).