... We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites. While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader. Users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with Google Takeout over the course of the next four months.
Great. I happen to really like Google Reader. I'm sure I can find another RSS reader, but will I be able to find one that does all of the following:
- Is web-hosted so I can read my feeds from any browser at any time. Something app based will have to sync with a cloud service of some kind in order to let me keep a consistent state across all my web browsers (Mac, Windows and Linux) and portable devices (iPods, phones, etc.)
- Collects articles from feeds even when I'm not actively running the app. Some feeds add articles so far and have small windows, so that I will either have to leave the app running 24x7 or expect to lose articles. Google's service keeps the entire feed, including a full history going all the way back to its first post.
- Give me the ability to quickly scrub through hundreds of headlines, reading articles that look interesting and skip over the rest.
- Support password-protected sites. Google never did this, but Apple's Safari RSS reader (which doesn't exist on Windows or Linux) does.
If you have any suggestions, please let me know. I've got until July 1 to migrate to something else.
Update: As I just discovered, Safari dropped its RSS reader in version 6 (which came out recently), so it's not available even on the Mac platform. Ratz
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