what to do when google reader goes away?
I'm addicted to my RSS feed. Despite the fact that on any given day I have approximately 5K unread items, one of my happy places? Diving into all of the posts that have accumulated. Undisturbed by clients, co-workers, children, the spouse. Yes, I cherish my 'reader time' each day.
Which is why my stomach dropped when I saw a post on Twitter that Google Reader is going away as of July 1. I've used Reader for years to manage all of my feeds. Honestly, my first thought was, 'Oh no, what am I going to do?!'
Then I realized that two other apps I touch daily also work in the same way. I just have to approach the process a bit differently.
If you don't know what an RSS feed or reader is or why you should care, please scroll to the bottom of this post. You can thank me by sharing with others after you join the anointed RSS devotees.
I've used Feedly (screenshot above) as my desktop RSS consumption app for a while now. I've always synced it with my Google Reader feed, and thus never considered that I could add feeds directly with Feedly. Well, with a name like Feedly I guess I missed the forest for the trees, no? One can add feeds directly in Feedly. Really.
Feedly also has handy extensions, like the one for Chrome, which make it super-easy to leave the real world behind and immerse yourself in the blogosphere.
What I like about Feedly? It's easy to organize feeds into categories. And the UX is nice. Clean, easy to maneuver. Waaay better than the unadulterated version of Google Reader (which, by the way, I never used to actually *read* anything - only to aggregate. and snoop - see below).
For the iPad, I adore Mr. Reader (that's him, just above). The app syncs with Google Reader, as well, so my existing feeds land exactly as I have them organized in Google Reader. But, as with Feedly, I can add feeds directly so no need to worry about Google's demise any more.
Feedly also has an iPad app. Which I have on my iPad. But I've never used it. However, since I now need to sync RSS feeds through an app and not through Google Reader that then syncs through my various preferred consumption apps, I may well be considering the iPad version of Feedly as a replacement for Mr. Reader. Maybe.
Other than the fact that I can't sync between Feedly and Mr. Reader, I'll also miss other features of Google Reader. (This is the snooping part.) For example, you can view all kinds of fascinating stats about feeds within Google Reader. Hit the gear icon next to any feed and you can view 'details and statistics' which include the number of followers in Google Reader that a given feed has, as well as post frequency and other stuff. Being nosey by nature, I've always enjoyed this feature. And I'll be sad when it's no longer at my finger tips.
But no more lamenting. I'm moving on. To Feedly, Mr. Reader, and perhaps other bigger and better readers as I discover them (and I'll be sure to share, if I do).
For those skipping to the end because you don't know what a RSS feed is or why to care: RSS stands for "rich site summary." It's a way to aggregate (collect) posts from your favorite online sources into one place, for ease of access and reading. You can find the RSS feed for just about any blog, video or other publication online and add it to a RSS aggregator (like those I mention in this post), so that you only have to go to one app in order to read all of the stuff that you love to read. (And it also means that you don't have to sign up for blogs with your email, which only clutters up your inbox.)
[Warning: if you love to read, and you love gathering information, and you love having all that you love to read in one place, then a RSS reader may very well be your new addiction. I don't want to blow your mind, so I shall save how you can further leverage this addiction with Evernote.]
You should care about RSS feeds and readers because the combination of the two is one of the most effective (and enjoyable - see warning above) ways to curate useful information for your practice. If you're not delving into what others have to say about what you do and how you do it, then you're going to be left behind. Staying current means being well-read.
Lawyers are curators. Embrace this. (Others who are much smarter than me think this, too.)
