You may (or may not have) heard that Google are closing down Google Reader, apparently due to lack of use.
There have been many articles and tweets expressing annoyance over the past 24 hours about this, and a petition has even popped up to save it. There has also been a bit of confusion about whether GFC is going away too.
In about June last year, Google took away GFC for non-Google related blogs (so for instance if you were hosted on Wordpress, you could no longer use GFC). Their blog doesn't say anything about GFC going away.
Google are not a stupid company - I believe they're trying to make people move across to Google+ (eurghh) but they would announce if GFC was going too, surely? They're not going to piss people off for no reason.
Anyway, if you are a a Google reader user and lover you have until July 1st to find some alternative RSS readers. So check out the list below for alternatives and places to find me:
RSS Readers:
NewsBlur
If you used reader for more than reading blogs, then NewsBlur is a great RSS reader, available on computers, ipads, iphones and android devices. To make it even easier, Mashable have a great article on how to export all your RSS feeds from Google Reader.
If you use Microsoft Outlook, you can also subscribe to RSS feeds on there.
RSS readers are really easy to find - take a look around the web to find one that best suits your needs.
Blog-following alternatives:
Hellocotton
I love how easy it is to find other blogs on Hellocotton, and the layout is really easy to follow and read. Follow me here.
One of the blogging communities' favourite blogging readers for quite a few years. I'm sure Bloglovin are loving all the extra traffic they're getting. With an easy to use interface and a sleek design, I love this site. There's also a great extension for Chrome that shows you how many unread blog posts you have to check up on! Unfortunately, I have noticed over the last 24 hours the site crashing a bit - probably due to the extra traffic. Hopefully they can update their servers to handle the amount of users they'll surely get.
Twitter
Not the easiest method to keep track of all the blogs you follow, but it can be done by using the 'lists' function. Most bloggers tweet to advertise their latest posts, so you can easily go straight to their page from there. Follow me: @michaelaarghh
CBF?
You should be able to continue to read blogs straight from your dashboard if that's what you already do. When you log into blogger, notice how to the top right of your "reading list" is the option to "View in Google Reader"? That means that by going through the reading list, and clicking on the individual blogs to read, you're not using Google Reader.
Are you happy or sad to see Google Reader go? What are your plans for reading up on blogs come July 1st?
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