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2 Amazing Google Reader Replacements You Haven’t Heard Of

It’s that time my friends. Time for us all to shuffle ourselves off of Google Reader. I’m very sad because I’ve used it every single day since it was offered to Google users. It replaced BlogBridge, my favorite RSS client due to its lightweight server side always-available-on-every-platform appeal. But it’s shutting down within the next few weeks. These are sad times my friends.

We’ve all seen the discussions on sites like Lifehacker, PCWorld, and TechCrunch all claiming that there are multiple replacements and/or alternatives. I’ve cycled through the gamut of them and found two relatively unknown gems I’d like to share with you. I’ve used both of these for a couple of days and I can honestly say…depending on your focus when using a reader, they’re quite nice and can replace Google Reader completely for you…and chances are you haven’t heard of them.

Let me start by saying if you’re a fan of magazine style flipboard readers, nothing beats Feedly. However, I don’t really think Feedly fits exactly with what Google Reader did. So while I don’t mind using it for say, things to post on Pinterest…it’s not exactly what I need to get through tons of news quickly. I find the magazine style pictures distracting when I attempt to make it through hundreds of feeds daily with a focus on news reading. If you’re not like me, Feedly will work fine for you. If you are like me, read on and I’ll show you 2 fantastic Reader replacements that you probably haven’t heard of.

InoReader, the Best I’ve Found

Let’s start with the best reader I’ve found to replace Google Reader…InoReader. InoReader is a free online reader that allows unlimited feeds with a nice, minimalist UI.

I can’t find anything wrong with the look and feel…it’s very comforting since it is very Google Reader-like. There are some amazing options available…for instance, if you care little for social networks, you can disable anything social from appearing in your feeds:

Other options you might be interested in is the ability to eliminate double posts. This means that if you have a couple of feeds that feature redundant posts, this will eliminate one of them. Handy if you read tons every single day:

I’ve found the speed of displaying feeds to be fantastic…it’s every bit as fast as Google Reader was. I’ve also found keyboard shortcuts to be functional and fast. There are 2 feed layouts available and that is full articles (expanded view) and lined articles (list view). This is perfect for someone with as many feeds as I have.

Do you want statistics? InoReader has them. It’s very comparable to Google Readers Trend section.

All in all, I’ve found InoReader to be EXACTLY what I need in a Google Reader replacement. I’m sure some people will find small, niggling things that stick out for them…but for me, it does everything I need it to. I was able to import my Google Reader subscription file from Google Takeout in a matter of seconds…this in itself is head and shoulders above another reader I tried called “The Old Reader” which took 2 weeks to import my feeds.

InoReader also has a mobile version of its website that autosyncs with my feeds in the browser which is nice when I’m using my tablet or phone. While there is no Android application as of the writing of this article, the mobile site is quite nice and simple and allows me to do everything I need to do and looks very similar to Google Reader’s mobile site. There is a Chrome App also available in the Chrome Web Store. Add things in like ability to search through your feeds, multilanguage support, as well as Pocket and Instapaper integration and you’ll understand why I think that this is the best Google Reader replacement available.

Final Verdict? It’s going to be sticking as my reader for a very long time.

Pros: Fast, simple, good mobile experience, Android App due for release in July, Standalone login or Google authentication, uses own engine to drive feeds, sound alerts, desktop notifications, ability to change skins/themes.

Cons: No tags yet (planned for later), Reordering of feeds not yet available (also planned), a few other small things detailed here.

Homepage: http://inoreader.com

Red Tree Reader – Beauty in Simplicity

Maybe InoReader has too much going on for you. If that’s the case, you’ll love the minimalist approach of Red Tree Reader. Please be aware that Red Tree Reader is DEAD simple…as in, there are absolutely NO distractions or features that get in the way of your feeds. The news is front and center.

With both whole article view (expanded) and a compact view (list) you can cycle through news quite quickly. Red Tree Reader supports the same keyboard shortcuts you’ve come to know and love in Google Reader. It’s creators GUARANTEE it is bug free…and you can read more about this nice minimal reader here.

If you’re looking for a reader that matches Google Reader but doesn’t attempt to plug into every social network on the planet while implementing whiz bang bells and whistles that you’ll never use or want to use, Red Tree Reader is for you. I tried the mobile site in my phones browser and found it functional but all together NOT ideal. If mobile RSS is your thing, give it a go and see what you think…I think this would work better on a tablet than on a phone.

My final verdict on this reader is that it will find a home with those of us who hate fluff and think content is king.

Pros: Lightweight, fast, support for keyboard shortcuts, minimalistic, imports feeds quickly and imports google feeds in seconds, quick feed displays

Cons: Not for social network people, very plain and thus not for people who want anything flashy, can’t reorder feeds, no feed icons, mobile site isn’t the best feed experience at all but works.

Homepage: http://redtreereader.com

Summary

These 2 RSS readers have a lot going for them and I haven’t seen any of the big tech news websites say anything about them. This is really a shame because they’re two of the best ones I’ve found over the past few months since I started looking. I hope this post helps you make a decision in your quest to replace Google Reader. If you have further questions about these readers, I’ll do my best to answer them in the comments. Thanks for reading!

Oddity with Delicious Bookmarks and RSS Feed

So today, bookmarks posted from delicious.com onto the Yet Another Linux Blog RSS feed. This isn’t normal…I don’t post bookmarks from that service here…in fact, I haven’t used them since they were bought out. I remember experimenting with bookmarks posting to your blog for the first month I had my delicious account…but never kept it on.

But suddenly, somebody’s bookmarks post and show up in the RSS feed here. For that, I apologize to my RSS readers. Rest assured, it shouldn’t happen again as I’ve deleted my delicious account.

Feedly, Chromium , and Google Reader

How many of you use Google Chrome or Chromium and have more than 10 active feeds in Google Reader? I’m sure that most of you raised your hand…well, maybe not physically but a mental raising of the hand I suppose. How about 20+ feeds? 30+? Is your (virtual) hand still up? Mine is.

I’m plugged in…maybe too plugged in. The “mark all items read” button received much use in my RSS reader. I found myself skipping more than I actually read. Google reader is awesome, don’t get me wrong, but it is a bit simplistic and plain…which is fine, it does its job well. I’m informed. But I often times find myself trying to sift through the cruft that is my various feeds. I have wordpress design feeds, freelance feeds, Linux feeds, sports feeds, business feeds, inspirational feeds, youtube feeds, feeds about feeds, and feeds feeding those feeds.

I wanted to get more from my news/RSS. Enter Feedly. Feedly is a way that my feeds become VISUAL. Instead of line by line by line, I’m given tiles and mosaic patchworks in an easy to read format. I have variety. I have images. I have screenshots. I have thumbnails. I can see my feeds. I can see what they’re describing. I can see what people are blogging about. I started using Feedly a mere 4 days ago and I have completely caught up on my reading. Before I started I had over 3000 articles and was many, many days behind on my reading. I’m completely caught up now with a manageable 200 articles to read.

Does this mean I’m reading thousands of articles with Feedly? Not by a long shot. But I’m finding what is important to me faster and thus being much more efficient. I’m still skipping many articles…but at least now I know WHAT I’m skipping. I’m not just marking all read so that I can catch up. Feedly allows me to peruse my feeds in almost a catalog fashion which speeds up my reading times and focuses my attention on the things that catch my eye.

Feedly is free by the way. I use it with Chromium/Chrom (works with any web browser though, just head over to their website) and you can too. Install it as a web application in the Chrome web store. Once installed, synchronize it with your Google Reader account…things you mark as read in Feedly will be marked read in your Google Reader account and vice versa. I also use it on my Android tablet. Make sure to check out the settings page in Feedly to configure the right layout and colors for yourself to make things easier to read and fit your workflow. I guarantee you will find yourself reading more interesting articles…bookmarking links more…and paying attention to what matters to you.

A Blip on My Posts

Hello everyone!

You may have seen a blip swing by in posting on the site with the default WordPress posting “Hello World” displaying as a new post. This was due to my recent migration from Site5 shared hosting to a Linode VPS. During the switchover, the database had not been uploaded yet as I was tweaking the webserver…feedburner detected a change in the RSS when DNS switched and BOOM! The WordPress default post popped up saying hello. I thought I had everything planned and timed perfectly but it seems I was off because of how fast DNS switched.

I apologize if this littered your inbox or your RSS reader. I can promise some GREAT posts coming up. I’ve been working on a file permissions and user groups posting to help new users out. I’ve also inherited an older laptop with a PIII that I’ll be installing Salix on soon…I’ve decided to go with LXDE version of Salix 13. Should be quite fun to see how that performs and report about it. I’m also investigating Linux command line downloaders that can grab files from the web for you. So lots of stuff on the horizon. Once again, apologies for anything odd that may have popped up.

If you’d like to know more about the migration or have Site5 shared or Linode VPS questions, please drop me a line in the comments section.

The New Planet Unity

Some of you may have noticed that Planet Unity got a face lift recently. I took a page from Linux Mint and their planet page and grabbed Gregarius which is a feed reader that aggregates your feeds into a central feed and has some really nice display options including tags for individual feeds.

This gives us a great opportunity to organize our developer blog feeds and developer resources for the end readers to drill down to the information that is important TO YOU. You’ll be able to search through feeds using the search function on planet or click on tags to display similar content.

So not only is this a new look, it’s a whole new set of features and functions:

Supports RDF, RSS, ATOM feeds
Imports and exports OPML
AJAX powered tagging of feeds and items
Supports themes and plugins
Search in your feeds
Basic i18n support
Committed to web standards: renders XHTML/CSS
Gregarius is FREE software and is released under the GPL

Now not all of these features and functions matter to end users, but they do give Unity Linux developers an opportunity to provide you with a good planet experience…that is, getting the most information in the least amount of time with the least effort!

Look for more great improvements soon! We’re working furiously all the time to make this the best Linux core out there!

Microblogging, Status, and Blogging 2.0

In my previous post, I asked readers how they plugged their blog and/or microblogged, web 2.0 style. Some microblogging readers recommended that I check out Ping.fm. It was exactly the service that I needed; the ability to simultaneously post status updates on twitter, pownce, facebook. I specifically look for services that don’t require that I install anything on my desktop (I like IM much more).

The only problem with this is that ping.fm is in beta stage…and a closed beta at that. So, I began to read various different blogs to try and find any other service that might do the same thing as ping.fm.

During my search, I cam across profilactic.com, which is a central aggregate place similar to friendfeed.com. The interesting part about profilactic is that it plugs into ping.fm and every single user can be part of the closed beta for ping.fm!

This means that you can microblog/status message bebo, blogger, brightkite, facebook, hi5, Jaiku, LinkedIn, LiveJournal, Mashable, Myspace, Plaxo Pulse, Plurk, Pownce, Tumblr, Twitter, and Xanga through one single interface OR through Instant message (there is a ping.fm bot).

Here’s the kicker…profilactic.com supports 186 sites as well as the ability to create a custom site. There are too many to list. Check out their supported sites.

So, you can utilize ping.fm to instant message status updates or microblog and instantaneously have it sent out to close to 200 different sites all at once. This is handy for me since I like to use pownce a bit more than twitter but my coworkers use twitter more. My status updates are still broadcast (on 60 second delay) on twitter through my instant message to the ping.fm bot. Ping.fm also supports the iPhone and has the ability to have custom triggers.

To take advantage of these great services, head over to profilactic and signup. When you’re setting up your sites, you’ll be able to plug into ping.fm (it will require that you signup using the profilactic beta password that profilactic will provide for you during setup). Don’t forget to visit my lifestream and add me as a friend 🙂 Happy micro/status/blogging!