After Google Reader

Google Reader is about to be retired – tomorrow will be the last day that you can use it. That will affect well over a hundred of you that read Zelo Street that way, and if you have not already made alternative arrangements, here are a couple of suggestions as to how you can keep on reading the blog in a similar kind of way (and no, I have no connection with any product mentioned).

Don't get stuck with rubbish like this

Already established – and with a one-click Google Reader import – is Feedly. What’s it like, and how do you move over to it? The New York Times has provided a handy review, which brings the reassuring news that you should have no problem if you use Chrome or Firefox. However, and there in inevitably a however, Internet Explorer is a no-no (but I wouldn’t advise anyone to use it in the first place).

And you have to install a plug-in to use Feedly, but even so, the people behind the product reckon to have expanded their installed base from around four million to seven million since Google announced the cessation of the Reader service. And the NYT’s David Pogue gives it the thumbs-up, especially if you’re a former Google Reader user. And an alternative offering, perchance?

Well, there is now Digg Reader too, which as I type has gone live, although the review in PC Mag is of the beta version. This, like Feedly, is free, but there are upcoming extras for which there will be a charge. You pays your money, and all that. Digg Reader imports feeds the same way as Feedly, from a Google login. Even the layout is – reassuringly – similar.

The PC Mag review also mentions other candidate successors to Google Reader. So it’s not as if you’ll be stuck with nowhere to go. Of course, you can also follow Zelo Street (publicly or anonymously) and read it that way, plus the Twitter feed and Facebook page are always available. I express no preference for any one successor product to Google Reader – that’s up to you, the, er, reader.

Have fun!