LWN: Comments on "Replacing Google Reader (The H)"

Replacing Google Reader (The H)

raven667 — 2013-04-06T15:55:25+00:00

I've been using Feedly for the last couple of weeks now. Their software works, it syncs with the Reader API on the backed so all the front ends are in sync, including Google Reader. The plan seems to be to create their own Reader API compatible backend and move over to it before summer.

Their apps work OK but really seem to prefer a magazine style layout over the simple list layout and don't at the moment seem to have space keyed to advancing to the next article or back/forward UI widgets in list view, maybe there are keybindings but I haven't found them yet.

Replacing Google Reader (The H)

lab — 2013-04-06T12:44:28+00:00

> It seems like Google Currents is only available as a phone or tablet app, so it's not much a replacement for the Google Reader web interface

Yes, sadly. In my opinion, any replacement for Google Reader has, as a minimum, the following properties:

- A desktop application. Web-based with good keyboard bindings would be preferable.
- A smartphone app, and a tablet app.
- A stateful synchronizable backing store.
- A synchronization API. Extra bonus if it's open, and allows for 3rd party applications to use it.

I haven't been diving into the alternatives yet, and am taking a bit of 'wait and see' approach. But from the chatter on the net, it seems that Feedly is currently one of the top contenders. People's opinions of it vary somewhat though. Has anyone tried it out, particularly against the above mentioned list?

Replacing Google Reader (The H)

jimparis — 2013-04-04T19:29:54+00:00

It seems like Google Currents is only available as a phone or tablet app, so it's not much a replacement for the Google Reader web interface.

Replacing Google Reader (The H)

mm7323 — 2013-04-04T19:16:13+00:00

Whoops! Complete brain-fade there!!

I meant Currents - which handles RSS and seems like the Reader replacement from Google.

Replacing Google Reader (The H)

jimparis — 2013-04-04T15:02:46+00:00

Have you not realized that Google Reader is shutting down? Everyone who uses it knows that Google Reader is good for RSS, and that's why this article is looking for alternatives by July 1.

Replacing Google Reader (The H)

mm7323 — 2013-04-04T14:49:24+00:00

Has no one realised that Google Reader can handle RSS feeds quite happily?

Replacing Google Reader (The H)

dany — 2013-03-27T11:40:09+00:00

Exactly, also great feature about google reader is, it still shows also rss from blogs which are no longer available (for example from sun employees, when oracle bought them, they deleted them), but I still see these old technical posts in google reader for technical reference. I will miss GR very much..

Replacing Google Reader (The H)

khim — 2013-03-27T09:43:17+00:00

There are another unique feature: if you subscribe to some RSS which is popular enough (and most of them are popular enough since there are literally millions of users) you can see not just what few articles server decided to send your way right now, but you can browser years back and look on the items which were posted long ago.

This feature is basically impossible to replicate in any non-cloud solution.

Replacing Google Reader (The H)

jezuch — 2013-03-27T08:38:38+00:00

> You don't *need* it but, apart from being a really good keyboard driven web-based reader, the unique feature about Google Reader is, that it's backed by a stateful storage, which can be synchronized to from various clients, on various devices.

Ah, I see. I got so used to strict separation of information sources between home (Akregator, browser session), bus/train (a book, a magazine) and work (another browser session) that I always forget about this aspect. I guess I'm old-fashioned ;)

Replacing Google Reader (The H)

lab — 2013-03-27T08:06:11+00:00

> I don't understand. Why do I need Google or anything "hosted" to browse my feeds? Isn't Akregator more than enough?

You don't *need* it but, apart from being a really good keyboard driven web-based reader, the unique feature about Google Reader is, that it's backed by a stateful storage, which can be synchronized to from various clients, on various devices. Many people, including myself, find this an extremely useful feature. So, I can start my RSS reading in the morning in front of my desktop, pick it up on the bus on my smartphone, and finish it in the evening on my tablet. All in one continuous synchronized flow. Feed items are identically read/unread on all devices, on all clients. That's a pretty great thing, and I'm going to miss GR sorely.

Replacing Google Reader (The H)

jezuch — 2013-03-27T07:52:08+00:00

I don't understand. Why do I need Google or anything "hosted" to browse my feeds? Isn't Akregator more than enough?

[Disclaimer: haven't used anything other than Akregator ;) OK, I use rss2email at work for one or two feeds that aren't enough to fire up a full-blown reader, but that's it.]

Replacing Google Reader (The H)

mgedmin — 2013-03-27T06:24:47+00:00

Most of the self-hosted solutions listed there are PHP. I'm a bit allergic to PHP. So I used Planet Venus, a Python feed aggregator, as my feed reader. With some custom Javascript to mark read posts and save that state on the client (with plans to add server-side read state tracking in the future).

Replacing Google Reader (The H)

marduk — 2013-03-26T20:34:08+00:00

[Disclaimer: I've never used Google Reader]

One not mentioned but a good for me is rss2email[1] (OS, SH). It simply checks rss feeds and sends them to an email address. So your "reader" could be whatever you use to read email (hosted service and/or standalone client). It utilizes such old antiquated technologies as cron and email, but that's good enough for some.

[1] http://www.allthingsrss.com/rss2email/