The end of my Google Reader Era.

Back, several years ago, at my very first job out of college I worked with the wonderful Bethany Grabher. At the time, we tag teamed the Front Lines Marketing Department for our company and liked to say that we lived on our own little marketing island. Our days were filled with phone calls from RV dealers across the US and Canada, figuring out quarterly promotions and trying to make our newsletter copy as clever as possible. We’d, also, ichat on and off for the entire eight hours M-F and share different things we’d found (re: technologies, pictures of cupcakes, articles etc.) back and forth.

She introduced me to Dooce, Food Gawker and more importantly Google Reader. Prior to the introduction of the most helpful tool of my past 5 years I  had all the blogs, marketing sites and other online joys stored in my bookmarks. Each day, multiple times a day, I would meticulously click through each page to see if anything had been updated. Looking back now, it’s almost hard to imagine the horror (I kid, sort of). I can very clearly remember the day she suggested (and explained) that using an RSS reader might be helpful and from here on out that day should be celebrated just as much as any ‘ol birthday I have marked down on my calendar. It changed my life — for the better.

It may seem insignificant to some, but it was by far, the best online tool I have ever, consistently, used. Ever. You ready that right? EVER.

When I found out this winter that my beloved reader was going away… a little piece of my online soul shattered into a million mourning pieces. I signed the petition to save it and have up until this month refused to let go. What is life without a little hope? Am I right?

Turns out it is going away (whether I, and many others, like it or not) and, each morning when I log in, Google Reader likes to make me aware of its own impending doom. Nothing like that cup of dismal sadness to help start your day off right. Le sigh. [On a side note: how would you like to be the person that pulls the trigger on shutting down Google Reader? The grim reaper of blog reading love? Glad that’s not in my job description.] 

Now that I have accepted that the end is near, I’m left trying to find a good solution. Which, let me tell you, has been no small feat. Right off the bat, many bloggers jumped over to Bloglovin‘ – I signed up, imported my feeds and gave it a whirl. And, I hated it. So much, in fact, that when I see the bloglovin’ button a slight feeling of disdain rushes through me. It’s just not how I read online. It’s not how I like to organize my content. It’s not what I want in a reader. Period.

Now that you fully understand my love for Google Reader and my apparent pickiness in choosing it’s replacement, here are a few that I believe qualify for the full-time RSS reader position in my life:

Bloganzier: This is the new guy on the block and I found out about them at Blissdom. They’re still working out some of the kinks (but wanted to launch before the end of Google’s Reader).  I’d say the future of this tool looks very bright! I’m definitely keeping them on my radar.

       

Feedly: This tool most resembles Google Reader, but has a lot more functionality and options. Plus it integrates with Chrome so well, which is a huge bonus for me.

The Old Reader: When I first found out about the demise of Google Reader this one was deemed a great replacement by a few blogs I read. It is very similar to Google Reader, but it is (or was) REALLY slow to read through and took several days to get my feeds imported. I’m on the fence with this guy.

There are, obviously, many more out there. These three have made the cut for me. In this moment I’d say Feedly is at the top of the list, followed by Bloganizer then The Old Reader. They function they way I need them too, allow me more flexibility in viewing and let me read the way I want to read.

Regardless, July 1 of this year will be a sad day and the end of  an online era. Hopefully, if you’re on the hunt for a new reader, these readers give you some options and if you happen to stumble across something that will rock my world. Please, I beg of you, share.