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.