HOW TO move on after Google Reader

I just thought I should remind you all of the upcoming death of Google Reader (July 1st - I think).

So long, fair well, auf wiedersehen, adieu!

I shall miss it, as I use it because it is joined in with my Google account and easy to link to as I use Google Chrome browser.

I know it seems like there is still a few months left but I anticipate that these smaller feed managers will be susceptible to falling down with increased traffic at the last minute, mainly due to Google Readers relative dominance.

There are a few options you have but the two that I have come across and favour are Bloglovin and Feedly. I have joined both. Why? Because although I use Google Chrome as my browser, and Feedly links in directly with that (as well as Safari and Firefox) which is pretty useful, when I am using an alternative browser I can use Bloglovin which is less stylised and similar to Google Reader.

It is really easy to sync your blog subscriptions from Google Reader to either of these and I will quickly show you how...why?...because I am hoping you will continue to follow me from another blog feed :D AND I know myself how annoying it can be to suddenly discover it is all gone and you can't remember all those blog addresses.

So which one?

Lets start with Bloglovin, I have noticed a couple of friends have added me on Bloglovin and they are stitchy friends or crafty friends as opposed to followers who read my music reviews or writing. It is a simple layout and very much in the style of Google Reader. So how to sync your feeds...

Step 1: Go to Bloglovin and create an account.
Step 2: If you are a Google Reader user you will be prompted after sign up to import all your subscriptions, I would recommend doing this at this point, however if for some reason you click the wrong button then fear not because it is still simple to do.
Step 3: If you missed the prompt after sign up, then go to account (top-right) and select settings, scroll to the bottom and you will see an import blogs button. Select Google Reader and wait for the account to sync.

The only problem I had was mine seemed to freeze on sync, I tried this a few times and it kept happening, but when I went to the site the blogs were there. So don't worry if this happens to you.

Bloglovin also has a page from the account menu called Follow Buttons and you can select one that you might want to add to your blog. Mine is on the top left-hand menu of my blog.

The other option which I have mentioned as will use too is Feedly.

I prefer the layout of Feedly, but I know that it wont suit everyone and there is nothing wrong with Bloglovin, but anyhow...

Go to the Feedly address...Feedly and you will see

You can see that it will connect to Google Reader. This is the option that I took. I also read that people were concerned that the back end of this site is linked to Google Reader but I have discovered on the Feedly development site that they are creating a replacement backend (as it were - hehehe) that will take over when Google Reader is 'switched off' called Normandy and that it should be a seamless transition. I hope so, but it is another reason to have the two. Back to this though...

Quite simply it asks you for permission to access your Google Reader and then syncs them. You can then easily manage your subscriptions. It is much better than Google Reader used to be in this way. I don't know how many of you ended up with duplicated feeds or had trouble cancelling subscriptions to inactive blogs? But I found that impossible to do on Google Reader even when it said it had.

This design is much more intuitive, when you are in the organise blogs screen, icons appear under each one including an 'X' for deleting. It will prompt you to remove from your feed, and this is a setting that you can change if you would rather not be prompted every time, and there is also a pencil icon if you want to edit the subscription too.

There is also a Feedly mini that sits on your favourites bar (much like with pinterest) and when on a site that you want to follow you can click it and it will add that to your feed.

This is probably the thing I like least - because there is no button you can add to the blog, you have to rely on the reader having it on their browser. But, saying that they are constantly developing it to for usability and to meet the needs of users. I personally will use both as I have heard only good things about the Feedly iPhone app.

Well, whatever one you choose, I hope to still see you around!

If you get stuck or have any questions, then feel free to let me know and I will help.

Thanks

Kate