Google is closing Google Reader’s doors on July 1st, meaning you’ll need to find a new way to get your news fix. Here’s how to export all your feeds and put them into a new reader (and which ones you should check out).
Step One: Export Your Google Reader Data
Before you do anything else, you should save all your Google Reader subscriptions now. According to Google, you won’t be able to to this after Reader shuts down, so do it now while you still can!
- Head to Google Takeout’s Reader page and click the Create Archive button. It’ll start building a file with all your feeds, the people you follow, starred items, and more (though most of these won’t be importable to other sites).
- Once it’s finished building, click the Download button that appears to get your subscriptions.
- Open up the ZIP file you just downloaded and go through the folders inside. Inside the “Reader” folder, you should see a file called subscriptions.xml. Extract that to your desktop. This is the file that contains all your subscribed feeds.
Save this file in a safe place while you hunt for a new RSS reader, since you may need it more than once!
Step Two: Find a New RSS Reader
Google Reader uses a tool called RSS to subscribe to web sites, and there are actually a ton of other RSS readers on the internet. After the shutdown announcement, a ton of awesome readers have come out of the woodwork and improved their offerings, so there’s something for just about everyone. Here are some of our favorites.
For the App Lovers: Feedly
Feedly (iOS/Android/Web) is by far the most popular Google Reader alternative, and with good reason. It has a clean, beautiful interface that you can tweak to work almost exactly like Google Reader—just prettier. It offers a ton of other views, though, so if you prefer a newspaper-like interface or an image-centric view. They’ve been adding new features like crazy since Google Reader’s death announcement, including a new syncing service (that syncs with popular apps like Reeder and gReader), an extension-free webapp, recommendations and keyboard shortcuts, and more. If you want to use the service that everyone else will be using—and that will sync with the most apps—Feedly is the service you want.
For the Desktop Reader Enthusiast: NewsBlur
NewsBlur (iOS/Android/Web) is a web-based feed reader that looks and feels a bit more like a desktop reader. You can see stories on the original site, create categories and tags that help highlight the stories you want most, and even create a “Blurblog” of all your favorite stories for others to read. NewsBlur is Free for up to 64 sites, but you can pay $24 a year for a premium account that gets you unlimited sites, more frequent updates, and more. If you’re worried about another free service shutting down like Reader did, ponying up a bit of cash could get you a bit of extra security in NewsBlur.
For the Social: The Old Reader
The Old Reader (Web) was built when Google Reader originally shut down its social features. It aims to be what Google Reader used to be: A simple, web-based RSS reader with lots of great sharing features. Its interface should look very familiar, so if you’re a Google Reader purist—especially when it comes to the pre-Google+ Reader—The Old Reader might be for you.
For What the Crowd Is Reading: Digg Reader
Digg Reader (Web/Android) isn’t available just yet, but social news site Digg has been working on a much-anticipated RSS reader for awhile. Like Feedly, Digg’s reader takes the familiar Google Reader interface and cleans it up a bit, with a few added features like Instapaper sharing, Digg integration (duh), and a “Popular” filter that shows you which articles in your feeds are trending right now. It’s still in the very early stages, but it looks pretty solid.
For the Minimalist: Newsvibe
Newsvibe (Web) is for those tired of RSS readers that try to do it all. If all you want is a simple, clean way to read your favorite sites—without all the social features, app integration, and other clutter—Newsvibe is a fast, free, and sparse alternative.
For the Visual Reader: Pulse
Pulse (iOS/Android/Web) takes a different approach to RSS reading. Instead of trying to imitate Google Reader or follow the traditional RSS paradigm, Pulse turns your feeds and articles into a visual, image-driven feed, and pushes the stories it thinks you’ll like to the top. If you’re a bit more visual, Pulse may be just your speed.
For the Do-It-Yourself Folks: Tiny Tiny RSS
Tiny Tiny RSS (Android, Web) is slightly different from the above options. Instead of signing up for a service and depending on them to sync your feeds, you install Tiny Tiny RSS on your own web server or hosting service. You then have your own syncing RSS reader that runs on your terms, and won’t get shut down because some company has deemed it unprofitable. It takes a bit of work to set up, but once you get it going, it works great—and has its own Android app too. If you don’t want the Google Reader heartbreak to happen to you again, Tiny Tiny RSS will make you happy.
For Everyone Else
These are far from the only readers out there, but they’re the most popular ones, and the ones we’d recommend checking out first. Of course, if you want something different, there’s surely something that’ll satisfy you. iGoogle fans will love NetVibes. Skimmers should check out Skimr, and picky readers can filter content with Curata. Aol even has a stylish new RSS reader. Desktop users can try something like FeedDemon, Reeder, or even Outlook. When we asked you about your favorite readers, a lot of you even mentioned that you’ve given up RSS and instead follow their favorite sites on Twitter and Google+, so that’s an option as well. Whatever your needs, you’re sure to find something out there that works for you.
Still haven’t found something you like? Check out this huge list of Google Reader alternatives.
Step Three: Import Your Google Reader Feeds
When you’ve found a reader you want to try out, sign up for an account and import your feeds. This will vary from service to service—a few, like Feedly, might just let you sign in with your Google account to transfer your subscriptions. For most, though, you’ll need to do something like this:
- Open up your new feed reader of choice and head into its settings.
- Find the Import option. This will be in a different spot for every reader, but most should have an option to import feeds using an “OPML” file—this is the file you downloaded from Google Reader earlier.
- Select the import option, and choose the subscriptions.xml you extracted from Google Takeout. All of your feeds should appear in your new reader.
This won’t import your starred items or know which articles you’ve already read on Google Reader, but at least you’ll still have all your subscriptions. Try out that reader for a few days and if you don’t like it, sign up for a different one and re-import your feeds. As long as you keep that subscriptions.xml file saved in a safe place, you should be able to try as many readers as you want, even after Google Reader shuts down.
You’ve still got one week to figure out which RSS reader you want to move to, so by the time Google Reader shuts down, you should be ready to keep reading news without skipping a beat. In the meantime, join us in the discussions below and share your favorite non-Google RSS reader.
Title image remixed from MARSIL (Shutterstock) and sspopov (Shutterstock).
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via Lifehacker Google Reader Is Shutting Down; Here Are the Best Alternatives