Google shutting down Google Reader 7/1/13

Tried NewsBlur, which was the closest approximation I could find. But they want money for having more than 12 RSS feeds, which is absurd.

For those with their own web space, you could try setting up Tiny Tiny RSS http://tt-rss.org

I'm going to give it a spin and see if it's worth the effort of developing a facelift for it.

maverickz wrote:

Tried NewsBlur, which was the closest approximation I could find. But they want money for having more than 12 RSS feeds, which is absurd.

I'm getting to the point where I may pay money for it just to have a service that is less likely to be turned off at random.

Also, I have 467 468 feeds.

Well, at least Orkut is still alive and well. IMAGE(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2010/1/19/1263942662485/SarcMark-005.jpg)

ChrisLTD wrote:

For those with their own web space, you could try setting up Tiny Tiny RSS http://tt-rss.org

I'm going to give it a spin and see if it's worth the effort of developing a facelift for it.

Looks good. Might as well make use of some of the domains I own.

For those of us looking to run our own it could be worth noting that NewsBlur is also available on GitHub.

The creator of Instapaper has some thoughts on what needs to be done:

The last thing we need is a format war — with Reader’s shutdown in July, we don’t have time for one.

An obvious idea that many have proposed (or already implemented) is to make a new service mirror the (never-officially-documented) Google Reader API. Even if it also offers its own standalone API for more functionality, any candidates to replace Google Reader should mirror the fundamentals of its API.

maverickz wrote:

Sigh, this was such an unncessary pain. What in the world was Google thinking. I had my system down pat. From my computer, to my tablet, to my phone. Everything was synced. "Oh, what's that? We have a system that works? Shut it down!"

Reader is one of the only reasons I keep my Android tablet around.

Gremlin wrote:

The creator of Instapaper has some thoughts on what needs to be done:

The last thing we need is a format war — with Reader’s shutdown in July, we don’t have time for one.

An obvious idea that many have proposed (or already implemented) is to make a new service mirror the (never-officially-documented) Google Reader API. Even if it also offers its own standalone API for more functionality, any candidates to replace Google Reader should mirror the fundamentals of its API.

I starred it on GReader.

How every single developer has reacted today.

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BFTn2mgCQAAWZHM.png:large)

This may be heading towards the realm of P&C, but I'm starting to reconsider my reliance on the Big G.

They are just making a series of decisions that don't suit me, and their blocking out of new Windows Phone 8 devices is pretty anti-competitive. Whereas MS and Nokia are making more decisions and taking actions that I really respect.

I've been leaning very strongly to a Galaxy Note/S3/S4 for my next phone, but Google's own actions are pushing me away from Android and towards a Lumia.

MrDeVil909 wrote:

This may be heading towards the realm of P&C, but I'm starting to reconsider my reliance on the Big G.

Same here.

I currently use Google for gmail (4 email addresses), Google Voice, Reader, and Calendar (my wife and I use it to sync our schedules and make it easily accessible by any device).

gmail can easily be replaced.

Voice, not so much. However I only access it via my android phone. It's really just a "set it and forget it" service.

Reader will be very much missed but it's not irreplaceable.

Calendar is the biggie for me.

I'm really just getting to the point where I might as well setup a dedicated server with one of my domains to host email, TT-RSS, and some sort of Calendar function similar to GCal to buffer myself and my family from the increasingly questionable decisions by corporations like Google.

MrDeVil909 wrote:

This may be heading towards the realm of P&C, but I'm starting to reconsider my reliance on the Big G.

They are just making a series of decisions that don't suit me, and their blocking out of new Windows Phone 8 devices is pretty anti-competitive. Whereas MS and Nokia are making more decisions and taking actions that I really respect.

I've been leaning very strongly to a Galaxy Note/S3/S4 for my next phone, but Google's own actions are pushing me away from Android and towards a Lumia.

In the same boat, DeVil. I don't even use Reader, but I've just been kinda annoyed at Google for a while now.

I use the link below to get all of my Google calendars to sync on both my Win 8 PC and phone. It involves a Chrome plugin and disabling JavaScript.

http://superuser.com/questions/46445...

mwdowns wrote:

In the same boat, DeVil. I don't even use Reader, but I've just been kinda annoyed at Google for a while now.

This has pushed me closer to the edge. Earlier this year I re-installed Thunderbird so that I'd have a live, local archive of my email. Additionally, I'm now concerned about Google's long term direction. They're moving more to social and trying to copy Facebook, but I don't want that. I want search to just work, and I don't care what my friends are searching for. Search is about discovering new things, not about staying in your social bubble.

I was never going to get a job at Google anyway, since I'm in the wrong field, but this has dropped them off of the fantasy-job-places list. Now, as long as Valve doesn't screw up...

In my concern over Reader going away, I missed the fact that after announcing they were removing the MS ActiveSync support from google accounts and saying everybody outside of google would have to use calDAV, they also announced in this latest cut of services that they were stopping support for calDAV except for some white listed developers. When the ActiveSync thing came up, it looked like it was a direct blow to MS and specifically Windows Phone. Now this looks to be a more general strategy to be more insular and non-standard with the industry.

What on earth are they doing out there?

Edwin wrote:

How every single developer has reacted today.

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BFTn2mgCQAAWZHM.png:large)

I have already started on mine... lol...

Tried to import my feeds into The Old Reader. Here is the message I got after clicking the import button:

Thank you for uploading your OPML file. We will soon start importing your subscriptions, which might take up to several hours depending on the amount of feeds you have.

There are 42517 users in the import queue ahead of you.

Right now Feedly seems to be the main alternative, but I don't like it as much. If the feed isn't in a folder, it's harder to find. Some feeds say "99" but you can only do 30 at a time and then have to refresh the feed.

I bought Press back when Verge ran a story on it, forgot about it. Now I'm back. I'm liking it more than Feedly. Hope this works out to where I don't have to stop using it.

This was devistating news for me. Reader is practically my second home, so I've been scouring all the alternatives I can find, and so far NewsBlur is the best, followed by The Old Reader. I'll likely shell out for NewsBlur in the end, though.

Veloxi wrote:

This was devistating news for me. Reader is practically my second home.

Same for me. But honestly I find it hard to sum up a lot of ire at Google for shutting down things that bring them no money. I mean the sum total of cash I've given to Google is $0, and I've never clicked on a single ad in anything they've shown me. I doubt I'm alone in either of those. At some point they must have determined that Reader was super popular, costing them way too much bandwidth, and not bringing in enough ad revenue.

I wonder how this will impact Google Listen on my Android phone, which integrates with Reader for its feed list. (another awesome google app I never paid for).

Mixolyde wrote:

I wonder how this will impact Google Listen on my Android phone, which integrates with Reader for its feed list. (another awesome google app I never paid for).

They killed Listen support a long time ago, so I assume that since it was linked to Reader for its feeds, you need to be finding a new podcast app. I'd say the most commonly used are Doggcatcher, Pocket Casts, and Beyondpod.

That is the EXACT problem I had. My Listen was linked to Reader as well. So I got DoggCatcher yesterday and made the big switch. I like DC more than the other podcast programs, but less than Listen. Listen was great and simple. Like Reader. That's why it had to die.

maverickz wrote:

That is the EXACT problem I had. My Listen was linked to Reader as well. So I got DoggCatcher yesterday and made the big switch. I like DC more than the other podcast programs, but less than Listen. Listen was great and simple. Like Reader. That's why it had to die.

I tried to use Listen for awhile, and I just didn't meet my needs. I'd already bought Pocket Cast before they killed Listen. I then moved on to Doggcatcher for stability over the old Pocket Casts, even though I've never really liked Doggcatcher's interface (too fiddly).

MannishBoy wrote:
maverickz wrote:

That is the EXACT problem I had. My Listen was linked to Reader as well. So I got DoggCatcher yesterday and made the big switch. I like DC more than the other podcast programs, but less than Listen. Listen was great and simple. Like Reader. That's why it had to die.

I tried to use Listen for awhile, and I just didn't meet my needs. I'd already bought Pocket Cast before they killed Listen. I then moved on to Doggcatcher for stability over the old Pocket Casts, even though I've never really liked Doggcatcher's interface (too fiddly).

Yeah, I'm having some issues with DC. The UI is not intuitive at all.

maverickz wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:
maverickz wrote:

That is the EXACT problem I had. My Listen was linked to Reader as well. So I got DoggCatcher yesterday and made the big switch. I like DC more than the other podcast programs, but less than Listen. Listen was great and simple. Like Reader. That's why it had to die.

I tried to use Listen for awhile, and I just didn't meet my needs. I'd already bought Pocket Cast before they killed Listen. I then moved on to Doggcatcher for stability over the old Pocket Casts, even though I've never really liked Doggcatcher's interface (too fiddly).

Yeah, I'm having some issues with DC. The UI is not intuitive at all.

I liked the interface on Pocket Casts better, but that was before the recent refresh. I've not moved back yet, but I'm watching it (have it installed on my tablet to play with, but not my main player, my phone). The new Pocket Cast has promise, though.

I eventually got my "workflow" down with Doggcatcher, so I'm fine. I just think it needs a UI overhaul.

How do you select a podcast and make it pay out of the list? Every time I touch an entry it either doesn't do anything, changes its status, or tries to download it. I just want to go to a specific feed, select an entry, and make it play. I think that's a fairly simple task, but I can't seem to do it right.