So Google is killing Reader:
We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favourite 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.
Translation: Thanks for letting us mine your activity and data for a few years. We’ve decided you just don’t make enough money for us, and we’ve decided to stop using your activity to feed into our search algorithm. You are no use to us anymore. We’re killing Reader. End transmission.
Translation 2: Using a web page to read feeds is emasculating.
I’m not at all surprised by this. (remember iGoogle?)
But there is an easy way to reclaim your feed reader, so nobody can take it away from you, or cripple it, or mine your activities and data.
I switched to Fever˚ a couple of years ago, migrating all of my feeds from Google Reader. And haven’t looked back. It’s not free – it costs a whopping $30 for a license. But the licensing fee goes to support a fantastic developer, and means that there are no ads or data mining or anything skanky.
Here’s my current Fever˚ “Hot” dashboard:
Here’s my “★★★★★” folder of must-read feeds:
Here’s my “Photos” folder – mostly from Flickr users, but also people posting photos elsewhere. All in one handy feed display:
It’s also got a great iOS app, Reeder (which is best on the iPhone – pixel doubled on iPad for some reason).
Screenshot of “hot” items in Reeder on my godphone:
And the five-star feed folder:
You can still “share” items – you can expose an RSS feed for items you star within Fever•, and – wait for it – anyone can subscribe to that feed, using any reader that hasn’t been “sunsetted” by a giant corporation. I display my “shared” items on a page on my blog, powered by a self-hosted instance of Alan’s awesome Feed2JS tool.
It’s my Fever˚. No company can decide to “sunset” it. Well, I guess Shaun can decide to abandon it, but even if that happens, the software is running on my server, so worst case scenario I don’t get updates provided by him (through the fantastic automated software updater, btw).
Anyway. Google kills Reader. Not surprising. If you’re still relying on anything Google provides, it’s now shame on you. Reclaim your stuff.
I’m onboard with this idea now. I might slowly turn into a Reclaimist. or a Partial Reclaimist.
partial is fine. reclaim what you care about. I rely on my feed reader far too much to leave it at the whim of some company that isn’t in the rss-feed-reader business.
I had completely forgotten that Fever works with Reeder. Now I’m sold. Fire up Hippie Hosting boys, we’ve got an RSS Reader to build!
Just the solution I was looking for! (See my latest blog post…)
Ah – self-hosted. Damn. I’ll have to become even more internet self-reliant I guess.
yes. you will 🙂 (and it’s worth it)
Thanks for the recommendation – I’ve used Reader daily for years and it never occurred to me that it would be on the chopping block. I will look at Fever to see if it will do what I want…
OMG — I had no idea there was such a thing as Reeder Fever… I’ve been happily using Reeder for a while.
Dude, where are your bookmarks now?
Yeah. Reeder’s Fever˚ connection on iPhone works great. Love it. Wish they’d add it to the iPad version…
I had to give up on diigo for bookmarks. it was just too funky. the extension sucks, and the bookmarklet misbehaved. turns out, I just really like scuttle. so… back to posting bookmarks on my own server. http://links.darcynorman.net running semantic scuttle now.
Cool. I try to follow the Norman Train but sometimes the junctions get a bit hairy. TWSS.
I’m continuing to use SemanticScuttle as well. The developer told me recently that development IS still underway, so I hope to see some improvements. I was using Diigo for other people and would happily keep it (or Delicious) if I could autopost from Scuttle. I had some discussion about how to write this, but the programming is beyond my skills without some significant time I just don’t have.
I also bit the bullet and installed Fever, which is great. Still using Flickr, though I like what you are doing on your site and might go that way if I figure out a good way to move forward. Are you still using FAlbum?
I played with the Flickr-to-Blog-via-IFTTT thing, but like the “original” being on my own site. Not sure why…
Not using FAlbum – I’m using a plugin called YD’s Recent Images to build my Ephemera page. I really like what it does. Last n images from all posts, including ephemeral and “real” posts. All in one place. Needs pagination, but that’s not the end of the world.
I’m all about the hairy junctions.
I opted to go the Fever route based solely on your recommendation. I’m starting to adjust.
Now I want to move all my stuff to a server in my house.