The best Google Reader alternatives

If you’re like us, you will be feeling a little sad that Google Reader is coming to an end. Today, it will be shut down and those of you who still depend on it will have to find a new home. Thankfully, there are a number of RSS services out there that can replace Google’s service and add their own twists to a familiar service. Here are the best ones out there. (For all intents and purposes, we’re focusing solely on desktop readers. Those interested in looking for new tablet or smartphone readers can find a roundup of the best ones here.) Feedly One of the most popular RSS readers out there and for good reason, Feedly takes what’s great about Google reader and adds so much more to the experience With numerous different layouts to experiment with and little features here and there, it’s a great one to get started with and importing your Google Reader data is simple. NetVibes An analytics platform by trade, NetVibes is also an RSS reader, which allows you to track topics through dashboards, allowing you to organize topics, sites and interests through widgets. If that display appears to be too messy, you can revert back to a normal feed display. The Old Reader Designed to mimic and improve upon Google Reader, The Old Reader takes what was great about Google’s product and makes it great again. It’s very minimal, mind, so it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles that the other products have. However, if you’re looking for a pure Google Reader experience, you’ve come to the right place. NewsBlur If you’re a power user, NewsBlur is well worth looking at. One of the nice features is the story mode, which brings up the actual website or blog within the reader itself so you don’t have to leave the reader. It’s handy if you don’t want to jump to and from tabs constantly. The only free account lets you follow up to 64 different sites, but a full account only costs $1 per month. It really depends how focused your reading collection is. Prismatic It’s the only reader on this list that doesn’t allow you to import Google Reader data, but Prismatic’s desktop experience is every bit as good as its iOS version. By building up a reading list based on your interests, topics and locations, it presents the most important and shared stories out there for your convenience. It’s a handy reader if you’re into heavy reading and are selective about content. Digg If you aren’t already using Digg, it’s recommended that you do so now, as it’s one of the top curated sites out there. There had been talk of Digg releasing its own reader, which was released in beta mode last week. Reports on it so far have been rather positive and if you want, you can get it on iOS since it’s been added onto it.