So, Google Reader is shutting down

[andrewducker]

Which has to be the most frustrating news I've heard in some time, as it's what I use as my gateway to the entire internet. I have 85 feeds set up, from sections of the BBC and The Independent, to individuals link feeds. RSS is the glue that brings the internet together for me.

And so here is a collection of discussions from around the web, so that I can comb through it later for recommendations for alternatives:
Metafilter.
Reddit
More Reddit
Hacker News

What _I_ want is a web-based feed reader that syncs to both desktop and Android clients. Preferably with keyboard access.

I will pay a subscription fee for this, and would have happily thrown Google Reader $10/year for this.

So far Newsblur seems to be in the lead, but I want to look around before making a decision.

Oh, and _all_ of the sites have been knocked offline, as people fleeing Google Reader try to log into them at once. *sigh*

Comments

[miss_s_b]

YAY for dreamwidth reading page say I.

[andrewducker]

Kinda. I use it for comics feeds, but it doesn't work the way I need an RSS reader to - which is to let me go through and clear things off, and then let me read what's left on my phone, PC, or in work.

[miss_s_b]

I always remember what the last thing I read was, and then go forward in time from that. It's not quite as convenient as marking things off, but it works for me.

[andrewducker]

Yes. But say the BBC have 150-odd articles since I last read their various feeds. I want to read 6 of those.

If I'm at home then I'll just open those 6 and then hit "Mark as Read" on the rest. But I want to be able to read them when I get to work. So I'd have to open them, hit mark as read, and then email myself the list of URLs. Which is a lot of faff!

[miss_s_b]

So you have the feeds going to various filters... I think we have very different ways of reading. I would find hitting mark as read on things a faff. I know if I've read it because it's further back in time LOL I don't have to mark ANYTHING.

[andrewducker]

How would different filters help? I only want to read 6 of those 150-odd stories...

(And "Mark as Read" is Ctrl-D on FeedDemon, or the big tick at the bottom of the screen on my phone.)

[miss_s_b]

You don't have one BBC news feed. For instance I have sci/tech and nature, but not anything else because I'll pick up anything else from incessant listening to radio 4. If you want to have ALL the BBC news feeds you stick them in a different filter. I don't actually use filters much - Mat does - I have just got everything pared down so that my feeds only send me stuff I am certain to want.

I discover new things from twitter (and your linkspams, and other people's) through the day. The only stuff I actually subscribe to is stuff I definitely don't want to miss.

[andrewducker]

To pick a couple of examples:
BBC Scotland: 25 entries today. Number I'm interested in: 0 (but there were three yesterday).
BBC Politics: 20. Number I'm interested in: 2 (but can be as high as 10, on an interesting news day)
BBC Tech: 5. Number I'm interested in: 0 (but can be all of them, sometimes).

I do have the BBC front page - because occasionally there's a story or two in there that's interesting that doesn't get carried in the sections I follow.

And that's just four of the 86 sites I watch. I read about 10% of all of the articles that go past me. And lots of them are repeated by different sites (because I get some of the Guardian, Indie and BBC).

Filtering would just leave me with the same problem, only splintered in the first place. There's no supplier of news that gives me everything I want, or doesn't produce a bunch of stuff I'm not interested in reading.

[miss_s_b]

Like I said, I think we read/choose feeds in very different ways.

[andrewducker]

Thank goodness for numerous options!

I do find DW feeds incredibly handy. Particularly images, or NSFW stuff.

[miss_s_b]

More lists of alternatives:

http://list.ly/list/33u-google-reader-alternatives-crowdsourced-list?feature=search

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-57574201-233/google-reader-is-dying-but-we-have-five-worthy-alternatives/

And one more which seems to have been set up by someone who had worked out greaderwas shutting down

http://beta.newsmaven.co/

[andrewducker]

Thanks!

[dreema]

a friend is contemplating playing with

http://selfoss.aditu.de/

[andrewhickey.info]

I use theoldreader.com -- it's *exactly* like the old Google Reader (including sharing, notes etc) quite deliberately. My only problem with it is it requires using a Google or FB login.

I believe *all* the current apps that do syncing do so through Google. No idea how they're all going to handle it.

[andrewducker]

Yeah, hopefully other people will support the right API! Because I'm still looking for something that works that way.