Google Reader to retire after 8 long years

Google Reader, one of the world's most popular RSS readers, will retire today and will not be available anymore. Google announced in March that it would close down Google Reader, a handy tool for bringing headlines and articles from your favourite websites into a single place, on July 1 as part of its spring cleaning ritual. Google says usage has declined since Reader made its debut in 2005.The service is still accessible (while writing this story), but Google will close down its Reader service anytime today. But as you won't be able to access Google's news aggregator service, there is an afterlife. Google has made it easy to move your list of sites you follow, known as feeds, to another service. And many of those rival services have made it easy to accept those feeds.The service that is believed to be the best alternative to Reader is Feedly. The service is available on major Web browsers and through apps on the iPhone, the iPad and Android devices.Google announced plans to shut down the RSS reader in March, claiming that the company wanted to focus on fewer products.The internet search giant admitted at the time that Google Reader had "a devoted following who will be very sad to see it go" and gave users a three month transition period to find an alternative feed-reading service.Google Reader was created in 2005 and became one of the most popular RSS readers, allowing users to see a stream of updates from their selected websites.RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and updates content from multiple sources into one feed, so users can quickly scan stories from many different websites.Despite Google Reader's many fans, Google said in its March blog post that use of the RSS service had declined, and provided instructions for how to export data to a different RSS platform.Loyal followers who rely on Google Reader tried to persuade the company to reverse its decision. A petition calling on Google to save the aggregator received more than 100,000 signatures in a few days, but without success.Several alternative RSS feeds have gained followers since Google's announcement in March. Digg Reader, built explicitly as an alternative to Google Reader, allows users to import their old Google feeds as a first step when they create an account.Digg's president, Andrew McLaughlin asked users for their thoughts on how the feed should look and wrote: "As daily (hourly) users of Google Reader, we’re convinced that it’s a product worth saving.""We hope to identify and rebuild the best of Google Reader’s features (including its API), but also advance them to fit the Internet of 2013."Another platform, Feedly, created an option to view streams in a similar layout to Google Reader and developed a one-click tool for users to transfer their old content.

In a blog post, Feedly said millions of users signed up to their service in the 100 days after Google's announcement.The company wrote: "A lot of undecided Google Reader users are looking for a home."

Reader Alternatives

When news hit that Google was going to be shutting down its RSS service, third party companies came out of the woodwork to announce their alternatives/replacements

§  Feedly - it seems like Feedly directly benefited from Reader’s impending doom the most— word has it that it’s added over 3 million new users since Google made the announcement in March. It has made a copy of Google’ Reader API, and when the service shuts down tomorrow, its clone will kick in for a “seamless transition.” Bonus, it’s available on Android, iOS and as a plugin for most major browsers.

§  Digg Reader – Digg reinvented itself last summer, following a major selloff and other issues. It’s hard to gauge how well it’s doing now, but it certainly seems to be making a lot of commotion with its new Reader project. The service just went live via a pair of iOS and web apps (and is scheduled to hit Android next month), and it’s capable of syncing your Google Reader feeds in seconds.

§  AOL Reader – AOL, once known as the source for your daily internet news, recently announced that it has an RSS reader of its own in the works. It seems more like a ‘me-too’ effort to try and regain some relevance with mobile users than anything else, but it has the resources to make something good. The down fall is, it’s only available in beta right now, on an invite-only basis, at reader.aol.com.