With the clock ticking, in the lead up to
bidding a fond farewell to Google Reader, many internet users are looking for
alternative RSS readers. Google Reader’s date with death row is June 30, 2013.
As of July 1 it will be gone. Don’t panic though; there are several
alternatives. Here are five that are free.
Feedly
Lots of people
have transferred straight to Feedly. It is a user-friendly reader and offers
flexibility in story displays. The feed can be set to display posts as
text-only, in a list with the lead picture, tiled on the screen, or displaying
entire posts. Users can mark posts as read and change settings within the
reader. The list of blogs followed displays on the right and there is a small
amount of advertising below it but it is unobtrusive. Set up was simple
and the 56 sites I currently follow transferred across from Google Reader to
Feedly within a few minutes.
I was impressed
to find the various display settings available in the iPhone app. The app is
also available on android and kindle.
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| Feedly display on desktop |
Byline
As you would
expect with a name like this, Byline is all about the words. Byline’s display
looks similar to that of Google Reader. Byline does not display images in the
blog feed which keeps the layout simple and functional. Display flexibility is
limited but if you only want a clean ‘reading’ experience it may be just what
you want. Individual posts display well and show images. When setting up
an account Byline asked me to log in with my Google account details and
automatically showed all of the sites I follow.
Byline is available
on iPad, iPhone and android. Interestingly a free version of the app is
available on iPhone and presumably on android but iTunes specify that it costs
£1.99 or $2.99 to download to the computer.
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| Byline iPhone display |
Bloglovin’
The appearance of
the sites or blogs you follow in Bloglovin’ is very easy on the eye. The logo
appears at the top of the screen with a few useful function tabs and that keeps
the rest of the page clear and dedicated to your feed. Users can sort the posts
by blog or date and choose small or large images to display with the posts.
Bloglovin’ is a very visual reader and there is no ‘no images’ option. The inability
to turn off images has never caused me any problems as Bloglovin’ has always
loaded easily whenever I have used it. Blolovin’ is a great reader for users
seeking inspiration as the search function brings up all sorts of blogs. The sites I follow
transferred easily onto Bloglovin’ and were available to view immediately.
Bloglovin’ is
available on Apple products and on android. The display options on the iPhone
are slightly limited compared to those on a desktop but not to any serious
extent.
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| Bloglovin' desktop display |
Pulse
If you are after
a more involved reader Pulse is probably what you are looking for. It is an
advanced ‘news desk’ kind of feed reader that encourages users to organise
information in different folders and automatically provides some. The display
is well laid out with a row for each feed and 3 – 5 images (each representing a
story or post) tiled across each row depending which device you are using.
Pulse serves those browsing for interesting reads well by providing lots of
suggestions. The folders can only contain up to 12 different feeds in each
however which I find limiting. I prefer the
display on iPhone to that on desktop. It seems cleaner. However both are user
friendly with logical function buttons.
Pulse is
available on Apple products and android.
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| Pulse desktop display |
Skimr
Those looking for
a simple ‘no frills’ RSS reader will appreciate Skimr. The feed displays
cleanly with very little else on the page. User information displays at the bottom of the
screen which, although it is a bit trickier for a new user to find, is probably
conveniently out of the way once users are familiar. I found the feed only
displayed some images, rather than one per story / post and the order they
appeared in was random. To ensure I found the latest post on a specific site I
had to go to the main page and select only that feed.Skimr is a great way to skim through the titles of the latest from your favourite websites and directs you to them if you click on a story / post.
Signing up for
Skimr was a bit more complicated than for other readers. Firstly the signup
option is at the very bottom of the page and secondly I had to export my OPML
file (Outline Processor Markup Language) from Google Reader and then upload it
into Skimr. Fortunately this was fairly simple and only took 5 minutes for 56
sites to transfer but it was more fiddly than other readers.
Skimr is
available on desktop. I could not find it as an iPhone app.
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| Skimr desktop display |
