Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Goodbye Google Reader
It was a little over 10 years ago that I discovered
the joys of reading blogs. I recall starting off with Rajesh Jains
Emergic.org and then with Seth Godins blog. And slowly, but surely, the
number of blogs I read increased. And it was difficult to read them on a
day to day basis – the favourites list on my browser was expanding and
getting more and more difficult to track. And it would not sync across
machines. So, all in all it was a pain to read it on a day to day basis.
And into this mess came Bloglines – in those days when blogs ruled the internet. I was a fan of bloglines.
And
then Google Reader happened. The switch was almost seamless, it was
even better than bloglines. And thus it is that for the past many years,
my morning routine on my computer starts off with opening Google Reader
on my machine. Even today, there are many who ask me ‘how come gmail
opens on your machine’ (in the office network, gmail is not allowed, but
reader is).
The
Google Reader is my pipeline – my education pipeline. Supplying
knowledge to me from across the internet, keeping track of what I read,
what I did not, storing favourites. In the olden pre RSS days, I
remember reading newspaper sites from the US to Australia and back – on a
good day.
But
the RSS reader delivers knowledge to your screen - even twitter feeds
and what better way of staying on top of news, reading what the
thoughtleaders have to say and the pioneers and the early adopters are
talking about.
Yes,
the google reader has been part of my daily routine at almost any place
I log in. For information consumers like me, it is a great pipeline.
Google may have other interests, but the readers consumers have a single
interest – that of tracking the feeds in a simple manner and the Reader
does that job silently, without any fuss and efficiently.
You
will be missed, Reader, but only till I find my feet on the next
reader. Currently trying out Feedly, but perhaps Digg will work as well.
What could a new reader do?
G Reader has only an all time list of favourites – can I have a blogwise favourites too?
I wish I could have a handier reader for the phone – currently the way it reads has been quite sub optimal.
Or help combine it with twitter – like zite, but lighter and faster. Think 2G in India.
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