Monday, July 1, 2013

Still using Google Reader?! Gah!

Google Reader will no longer be available after July 1, 2013. We all know this by now.  But I must shamefully admit that it is 1:41 A.M. on July 1, 2013 and I'm still using Google Reader.  I know I'll be cut off.  I know this is a bandaid that will be painfully ripped away.  Yet, I stubbornly return for one more day.



What will I do on July 2nd, you ask?  I'll resentfully turn to Feedly.

I played with the following three options: Blogluvin, The Old Reader, and Feedly. Only Feedly is left standing.

On Blogluvin...
I never figured Blogluvin out and I just didn't have the time to play with it.  It appears like a separate community.  I don't want a separate community (insert pouty face), I just want to read my feeds.  At one point I was excited because there was a feature that allowed me to move seamlessly to the next blog.  I'm not sure what you call that toolbar thing.  BUT the toolbar failed if I commented on a blogger blog and the page had to reload. My excitement quickly dissipated.  Then I moved on to Feedly.



On Feedly...
Feedly was okay at first glance but I just didn't quite like it. Although, Feedly gives many options on how to view your feed, I didn't like that I had to change it every time I opened Feedly rather than being able to set the default.  If I'm wrong on this, somebody please help me.  I also didn't like that I couldn't scroll though my feeds quickly by clicking (I really hate pulling down the scroll bar).  BUT then I realized that I could scroll through quickly by using keyboard shortcuts.  Then I became frustrated because I couldn't remember the keyboard shortcuts and found myself pushing random buttons on my keyboard.  Gah! Yes, these are the problems I choose to have.  Then I decided to jump ship and try The Old Reader.

On The Old Reader...
I gave The Old Reader more of a shot than the other two.  I liked it because it reminded me of Google Reader which is good for the Gal who doesn't welcome change. But I eventually had to admit to myself that the drawbacks in this reader were just too big. First, I can only have each feed in one category at a time. I organize my feeds into categories by genre. I also have an unsorted category for the blogs, I haven't yet placed and I also have a favorites category for those blogs that have my attention at the moment. These change quite often and the categories are pretty fluid. All blogs in a non-genre category like "Favorites" or "Readathon" should also go into a genre category.  The Old Reader doesn't allow me to do this for someone reason. And when I started to use this reader, it adjusted my feeds so that they were in only one category.  This totally SCREWED me up.  I've been trying to fix this for over a month.  BAD BAD BAD.  Then, I didn't like how my posts looked in The Old Reader.  I hated the thought of people seeing my posts formatted like that.  It gets worse.  The Old Reader does not update my feeds when I view them in other readers or on my iPad.  This is especially bad because The Old Reader doesn't have an app.  So when I felt sorry for myself and went back to Google Reader, The Old Reader did not recognize that some of the posts and already been looked at by me.  Gah!  I'd visit blogs on my iPad and come back to The Old Reader and find 999+ unread feeds.  This was too overwhelming for me.  It's just inefficient.

Sooooo...
I went back to Feedly.  Or I will.  Tomorrow.  But not today.  Today I will use Google Reader.  I will make them kick me off.



I hope everyone's transition has been smoother than mine. How'd the transition go for you.
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27 comments:

  1. It sucks :/ I am still on my dashboard until it does away and then bloglovin

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  2. Oh noes! I transitioned to Bloglovin' as soon as I heard Google Reader was going away. I am totally lovin' it. (hah.) There are actually only a very few blogs I read on a regular basis and I get separate emails for those (until Google decides to take those away, too) and I like that I can just scroll through my giant list and not read everything. I just don't have time to read... 616 blogs' new posts every day!

    Sorry you're having so many problems :/

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    1. I couldn't get Blogluvin at all! I just really don't like change :(

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  3. I'm in the same boat.

    Bloglovin doesn't do it for me.
    Digg is just bad. It doesn't tell you how many new feeds/unread posts you have.
    AolReader isn't bad.
    Feedly so far is my fav. I do wish there was a next item button in Feedly. And I wish it was searchable.

    Good luck! :)

    I'm on GR today too.

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    1. PS Old Reader was also a turn off.

      AolReader has a next item button.

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    2. I never tried AolReader. I'll have to look into. Right now I'm just discouraged.

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  4. You can definitely set the default to stay for Feedly-I changed all of mine to one way and they stayed. Have you tried recently? Maybe there was just a glitch.

    My wish is that Feedly was searchable too-it's a common want!

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  5. I have gone over to the Feedly side...I was reluctant at first, but it's definitely grown on me. The mobile app is great too (way better than trying to flip thru Google Reader on my phone). Still not psyched about the change though!

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  6. i don't know about either bloglovin or feedly. i've moved to both bec i couldnt make up my mind ... but i dont like either of then hahaa!

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  7. I really like Bloglovin. It reminds me of the google dashboard. I'm sorry that you haven't found one that you like yet :(

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    1. I guess I can look at Bloglovin again. I'm just discouraged :(

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  8. I'm on both too, but I am convinced Feedly isn't giving me all my subscriptions. I am flipping back and forth right now, but I really miss Google Reader. You aren't the only one !

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    1. Oh that would make me very upset. I'll have to watch out for that.

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  9. I think I still used Google Reader I don't know
    I think I still used Feedburner :P
    I don't know, honest. I do have blogluvin and Networked Blogs set up in my page so people can chose whatever they want.

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    Replies
    1. I took off networked blogs. Hopefully will choose to follow my RSS feed.

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  10. Alexis you're doing better than me because I haven't looked at any of this. As I always go directly to a website, I've never really used a reader. Maybe I'll check feedly out, but I'm just not pressed about this.

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    1. Oh you are really good. I need these readers to manage my life. Or I won't get to visit anyone's blog.

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  11. I moved right into Bloglovin' and haven't had a problem at all. I like that it pulls up a list of all my blogs and the postings I've yet to read. I haven't explored anything else to be honest.

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  12. I really have no idea why Google is discontinuing their reader...

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  13. It still makes me furious that Google Reader was dumped. The thing is, they could have kept it up and just not put anything further into development and support. Then, at least, people could still use it. It's not like they couldn't afford the server space just to keep it sitting there.

    I've switched over to Feedly and while I still don't like it as much as Google Reader, I do like it. You can just scroll down posts and have them marked as read, and there should be a way in your settings (on the left side?) to fix everything the way you want so it stays that way.

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    Replies
    1. I agree. But I can understand them not wanting to have anything associated with the Brand that they knew wasn't going to keep up their advances.

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