An RSS Reader automatically gathers website articles and posts from websites you subscribe to. Rather than visiting many different websites for your news, you can use the reader as an aggregate of all your news.
As of July 1, the Google Reader RSS Feed service will be no longer available (see the official announcement below). Because Google Reader has been one of the most popular readers, many people are looking for alternatives.
Two alternatives that seem to work well are Digg Reader and Feedly. These services are able to import all your Google Reader news feed information. Mobile apps are currently being rewritten to work with these other services. The Digg Reader service launched just days before the shut down of Google Reader.
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Below: Announcements from Google about Google Reader
How can I download my Reader data?
Google Reader will be retired on July 1, 2013. If you’d like to download a copy of all your Reader data before then, you can do so through Google Takeout. You’ll receive your subscription data in an XML file, and the following information will be downloaded as JSON files:
- List of people that you follow
- List of people that follow you
- Items you have starred
- Items you have liked
- Items you have shared
- Items shared by people you follow
- Notes you have created
- Items with comments
Click here to start downloading your Reader data from Takeout. Once downloaded, your subscription data should be easily transferrable to another product, where you can continue to keep up with your online reading.
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Powering Down Google Reader
3/13/2013 04:06:00 PM
Posted by Alan Green, Software Engineer
We have just announced on the Official Google Blog that we will soon retire Google Reader (the actual date is July 1, 2013). We know Reader has a devoted following who will be very sad to see it go. We’re sad too.
There are two simple reasons for this: usage of Google Reader has declined, and as a company we’re pouring all of our energy into fewer products. We think that kind of focus will make for a better user experience.
To ensure a smooth transition, we’re providing a three-month sunset period so you have sufficient time to find an alternative feed-reading solution. If you want to retain your Reader data, including subscriptions, you can do so through Google Takeout.
Thank you again for using Reader as your RSS platform.