So there are a bunch of alternatives to Google Reader out there, and I have been trying them out to see what I will transition to, when Google proves just how evil it is and shuts down Google Reader.

Personally I use reader in my Browser and the awesome REEDER on my iPhone and iPad. And he says REEDER won’t die with Google Reader.

Though I hope he announces what backend he will be supporting soon, as I don’t want to give up Reeder, and am still waiting for the REEDER 2 for iPad update (The REEDER update on iPhone is awesome, and the iPad app needs those features).

The first I have tried is Feedly, which is a browser extension and RSS reader which currently syncs with Google Reader, but they promise to move to their Normandy Back end as soon as Reader goes down.

Now Feedly is pretty, but more digital magazine than Google Reader like, which makes it not as efficient for me.

It does run well and look nice though.

Netvibes has a free and paid version. It can import you Google Reader feeds though. When you first look at your feeds it is in a strange widget view, but you can switch to a list view.

Widget View, which I don’t like.

List view is much more Google reader like, and you can also see more of the articles.

It is pretty nice and works OK on the iPad, but the buttons are small and you have to pull down menus to mark as read (I like the auto marking read as you scroll past in reader) and it feels a bit slow and just not as well laid out as reader. It does quickly let you see full pages and the like, but having to pull down drop down menus to tag to read for later or mark as read is just not very efficient.

Newsblur is a recent addition, and will import your reader rss feeds, though it has been really slow since the announcement of Google Readers demise. It has a free version with 60 feeds or is $12 a year for all your feeds to work.

It also has a free iPad app. So far I would say they are getting way too hammered, as the interface is so slow as to be unusable. I will keep trying, but hopefully their capacity will grow and they will start to function better.

The OldReader also has potential. They are based on an old version of Google Reader before they made so many changes, but currently the import functionality has been deprecated. I had to upload my old feeds (thankfully you can easily download yours from Google) and it said I am something like 6000 in line for them to be imported , so I don’t really have any feeds to play with.

It is similar to Reader and seems very fast so far (I only have 1 feed, which is theres though). They do promise a new API so apps can use them and will keep working to improve quickly.

I will keep trying, but so far no cloud solution is nearly as good as Reader. Maybe once servers get better things will improve, but right now I don’t see which direction I should move. Hmm. Will keep you updated.

Well the petition at Change.org only needs 749 to go, not that I think Google will listen, but it would be great if they would release their source code so someone else could take over. Be easy enough to make an add supported and a pay version, though it would need speed to work as well certainly.

Arstechnica has the story, though I heard it from google themselves when I went to reader this morning, as I do every morning!

Here is google’s spring cleaning announcement (which also looks like they are getting rid of CalDAV, so looks like no more interface with iCal. Yipee, thanks Google and FU!).

Honestly while it took me a while to get to RSS, it is how I interact with the internet, not through crappy social sites like Facebook or especially Google +. It is what I do on my iPad (thanks to REEDER, which uses Google Reader as a back end) and on any computer I work at. I log into GMAIL and Google Reader.

Hell this makes me think I need to stop relying so heavily on GMAIL as Google will likely kill it one day with little notice. And how about Blogger? Will they be next? What else is google going to kill?

There is a petition on Change.org that already has over 40,000 signatures in 2 hours! So please sign it.

In the mean time I am trying out NewsBlur which costs $12 a year, but gets it feeds from your Google Reader feeds, so at least you have the same feeds set up. Still the interface is certainly not as easy or as quick as Reader. AAARRGHHHHH!!!!