As Google Reader was winding down going into the summer, my late spring was spent trying to find a suitable replacement for Reader. I tried Feedly, CommaFeed, Feedspot, and a slew of others to try them out (as I type that, I realize that I should go back and remove some of those accounts to keep my digital footprint under control). Here’s what I was looking for in my ideal replacement for Reader:
- Look/feel/function nearly identical to Google Reader (there was a reason I was using Reader in the first place, after all)
- Reasonably fast (I knew not all options would have the same server power as Google)
- Ability to import my feeds
- Mobile app for Android
- Ability to create a feed of favourited items
- Mark items as read as a scroll pass them
- Ability to “unread” an item
- Firefox extension
Some of these new RSS readers have some cool features, but none felt quite right. I enjoyed Feedspot the most of the replacements, but it suffered from slow server speed and didn’t yet have an app.
Somewhere along the way, I stumbled across InoReader and I fell in nerd-love with it. It is reasonably quick, has a customize-able interface (lots of skins, can enable a Reader-like interface), and fills the rest of my wish-list. Today, as I started revitalizing my blog, I enabled my “favourites” feed to add content to the side bar. To share an item here, all I need to do is click the “broadcast” button inside InoReader.
Now that I’ve been using InoReader for a few months, I’m kind of glad that Google shut down Reader. If it wasn’t for them doing so, this awesome product probably wouldn’t have been developed and I certainly wouldn’t have started using it. As frustrating as it is for a web service to close its doors, it’s great to know that if there are people who see value in it then they will find a way to continue and improve on the former service. I highly recommend InoReader to anyone who even mentions RSS feeds around me. If you’re still looking for a replacement for Reader, or want to try another option, give InoReader a shot.