Google doesn’t sit still for long. Even on their flagship products (search, email, calendar, G+, etc) they’re constantly tweaking.
Sometimes they just bail on stuff they’ve spent billions on (Buzz, Wave).
Latest on the chopping block: Google Reader. Fans are not happy. There’s even a petition circulating.
Let’s recap. Google Reader is actually an RSS feed reader. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. The ubiquitous orange iconic logo symbolizes RSS. RSS feed readers
For online nerds like me, RSS feed readers are a Godsend…and Google was among the best, and certainly the most recognized and used RSS Feed Reader. Feed Readers aggregate strictly the content from websites, blogs, and other online sites…into a easy-to-access interface that lets you peruse lots of information FAST. It beats browsing through tab after tab after tab. The word “feed” comes in, because you get to program which sits you want “fed” into your reader.
A few months back, Google changed some features on their reader. They’ve been steadily removing functionality and none of it sat very well with Google Reader regulars. Well, July 1st the whole show disappears.
Several 3rd-party developers are dancing a jig, though, ’cause this opens up all new opportunities for THEIR products.
The important thing is to beat the deadline, though, so you can export your feed FROM Google to your new reader…after July 1st…you won’t be able to, and if you’ve spent a lot of time building your feed…that would be a big loss.
So below are my 5 suggestions for RSS Feed Reader replacements:
(for tablets) Flipboard, Pulse, Google Currents, Zite, Taptu
Honorable mention: MS Outlook. Yup, Microsoft Office’s premiere CRM program also brings in RSS feeds, and it ain’t half bad.
OOOooooor…you could go on flitting from site to site manually, and wasting precious auditioning time.
CourVO
