July 1st is right around the corner, which to us tech-minded folks means the day that Google Reader officially dies. Pause for silence. Sad day for many who have long-relied on this handy platform to keep up with their favorite blogs and news feeds; but fear not! We have plenty of other worthy options that will soon take its place.
A couple months ago, we covered a handful of Google Reader alternatives.You can find full detail about these top 5 on our recent post.
Feedly:
Newsy:
Pulse:
Flipboard:
Newsblur:
Now, we have a few more free option to add to your list of possibilities for getting the news feeds that are relevant to you. They’re not necessarily as flashy, but for good, basic functionality they’re all picking up in steam over recent weeks.
If you’re a traditionalist and don’t want to get too experimental with a new interface, you might appreciate the very basic look and feel of The Old Reader (above). It definitely is reminiscent of Google Reader with all your subscriptions listed on the left side and content on the right. You can also log in via Google or Facebook and import your current subscriptions, making for an easier transition. It’s basic and there are no mobile capabilities right now, but judging from our own site analytics, quite a few of you are very happy with it.
Similar to the concept of Newsy, Skimr is geared towards those short on time and patience for reading a lot of text. It essentially gives you a “what’s what” of headlines and text snippets from the sites that you’re interested in hearing from. This means you lose out on some content, like video, but you can read through everything very efficiently. You can choose your feeds from websites they provide, add your own or even import from Google Reader.
If you’re mostly using your reader to keep up with blogs, Bloglovin is an oldie but goodie. You can search through popular blogs, add your own favorites (ahem, Cool Mom Tech) and customize based on what topics areas you’re interested in. Plus, it’s mobile-compatible so you can get the latest and greatest blog posts on the go.
Finally, rumor has it that Facebook has been working on a mobile news reader for quite some time. No word yet on when it will be released, but we’ll keep our eyes open. We’re pretty sure that it’ll be big news, either because it’s awesome or becuase it’s…well, Facebook. –Jeana
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