Tag Archives: Google Reader

Get The Google Reader Look & Feel In Feedly For Chrome With This Theme

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July is inching closer, and that means some of us will soon be faced with a tough decision: what service to use in Google Reader’s place? We have compiled a handy list that you can take a look at and find a suitable Google Reader alternative. By far, Feedly is one of the most preferred services of many Google Reader that they will be migrating to, and I’m personally inclined towards it myself since they've been proactive about filing the gap that Google Reader will leave behind, and because the interface is the best I've seen. For those who are planning on switching to the service, Feedly Reader is a Chrome extension that modifies Feedly so that its interface is more like Google Reader. The extension has no customization options and acts like another theme for Feedly. Read More

Reeder Bids Google Reader Farewell, Mac & iPad Apps Go Free

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Although Google Reader still has a few months of life left in it, a mass exodus has already begun. People are switching to alternatives of the service, and have started discovering that the world won’t end on the 1st of July. If you are on iOS, apps like Rockmelt offer options that are certainly better than Reader itself in many ways, and it is nice to see that there are other conventional Reader alternatives available as well. Reeder is one of the most popular Google Reader clients available on iOS and Mac. Since it has, up till now, relied on Google Reader to function, its users feared the worst, and assumed that it will stop working as soon as Reader goes down. Fortunately, the Reeder team has refused to throw in the towel, and the service is expected to become independent of Google Reader before July 1. Not only that, the Mac and iPad clients of Reeder are now available for free! Read More

How To Import RSS Feeds Into Microsoft Outlook For Windows

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As most of you must have heard by now, Google Reader is retiring this summer and we've guided you through the process of backing up your Google Reader RSS feeds as well as given you a healthy list of alternatives for Google Reader to switch to, once it's gone. Though our list focused on apps that were always meant to be RSS feed readers, and we purposely left out the ones that offered RSS subscriptions as a side feature. Outlook - one of the most popular desktop email clients out there that's known mostly for helping you organize your contacts, remembering appointments, and sending emails - actually supports RSS feeds natively. The feature has been ignored by most so far, but the death of Google Reader has finally brought it much attention. If you use Outlook for your email, contacts and calendar already, there's no reason why it can't take care of your RSS subscriptions. So let's take a look at how you can import your feeds from Reader to Outlook, and switch to it as your RSS app. Read More

How To Import All Your Google Reader Feeds Into Rockmelt For iOS

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It has taken a few days, but the news of Google Reader’s looming demise has finally started sinking in, and people are now coming to terms with the fact that there are other services out there that are more than capable of replacing Reader. As for the data you might have accumulated over time, that can easily be exported to the new service you decide to use. However, most people have discussed desktop-based replacements for Google Reader until now (although Feedly does have mobile clients), but there are also those who are open to the possibility of switching completely to their iPhone to check out all the latest news stories from around the world. The previously covered Rockmelt deals with RSS feeds, and lets users sift through interesting articles using gestures. The team behind the app has taken full advantage of Reader’s end, and has made it possible to import all your Reader feeds to Rockmelt in a few easy steps. Read More

Best Free Google Reader Alternatives For Web, Windows & Mac

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Google Reader will be gone soon and the faster you start looking for ways to move on, the better. It isn't going to be easy though; scores of developers have created apps or services that integrate and sync with Google Reader. The feature itself was not merely important, but rather considered by many to be an integral part of any worthwhile RSS reader. Times have changed though and with Reader soon to be no longer available, it’s time to consider alternatives. Understandably, Google Reader users might be looking for either a web service or a desktop app to fill the void, and we've compiled a list of free options for each platform: web, Windows, and Mac. Our Emphasis was on two key features - the app or service must be free, and it should be able to import from XML files since that is what you get when you backup your Google Reader subscriptions. With only two exceptions in our list that only partially meet these requirements, we’re hopeful you will find something that’s just right for you. Read More

How To Export Google Reader Feeds And Import Starred & Liked Items

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Google is retiring Google Reader, and we just don’t know what to do with our lives - well, our RSS feeds actually - anymore. Fortunately, the grace period before Google Reader goes the way of the dinosaurs gives us ample time to back up our feeds in order to jump ship to an alternative, and Google has provided a simple way to do so. This post details how to export and save your current Google Reader subscriptions so that they can later be imported to any RSS service or app. In addition, we'll also show you how you can back up the items you've ‘starred’ in Google Reader for later access. Read More

Leaf Is A Sleek, Compact Google Reader Client For Mac OS X

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Leaf is a brand new RSS reader app for Mac available in the Mac App Store for $3.99. It can connect with your Google account and import all your RSS feeds from Google Reader. The feeds can be viewed in a tiny window, and the news item can be opened in your browser or shared using one of the many sharing options supported by Mountain Lion. On the surface, Leaf boasts a beautiful UI for reading your RSS feeds while under the hood, it’s a reasonably good way to manage them as well. While it wouldn’t let you create new folders, it will import the ones you’ve created in Google Reader and allow you to move feeds between them. You can add additional feeds from within Leaf, and the app also gives you the option to set it as the default RSS reader. Read More

Preview Google Reader RSS Feed Items In A Grid Layout In Chrome

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Google Reader offers a great way to keep track of all your RSS feed subscriptions from anywhere and its integration with Google can be hard to substitute. However, many find its interface lacking in terms of visual appeal. You have the choice to either put up with the design, use a desktop app to read your feeds, or use an extension to modify it to your liking. Grid Preview For Google Reader is a Chrome extension that presents your Google Reader feeds in a grid layout, as the name implies. The extension does not change what the home view looks like; you will see your feed change its layout only when you select a particular feed to view. The extension integrates itself with Google Reader’s interface and adds a column selection dropdown menu next to the one for ‘Feed settings’. From this menu, you can choose to divide your feed into as few as two or as many as twelve columns. Read More

CleverFeed Is An OS X RSS Reader That Sorts Feeds By Your Interests

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Whether you follow them as part of your work routine or just to read the latest posts on your favorite websites, going through RSS feeds can be quite time-consuming. The practical way to go through them and conserve time is to read the posts that seem most interesting from their titles and postpone others for later. This is obviously a manual filtering job and will tax your time daily. CleverFeed is a free Mac app that aims to automate this. As its name implies, CleverFeed sorts your feeds intelligently. It asks you to like the posts that seem most interesting to you and then tag them with keywords. The app analyzes how you tag different posts, scans their content, and finds similar ones that are likely to interest you. Its recommendations improve with time as it learns more about your reading preferences. CleverFeed imports feeds directly from your Google account so you'll still have to use Google Reader to add new feeds or manage existing ones. Read More

Get Google Reader Desktop Alerts, Quickly View & Manage Unread Items In Chrome

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You’re probably tired of the ordinary Google Reader extensions that you come across in the Chrome Web store. They all do one thing more or less; provide you with a live count or desktop notifications for new items in your feed. If that's the case, try Checker Plus for Google Reader. It offers you a world of features and just as many options to customize how it works. At the core, Checker Plus for Google Reader gives you notifications for new items in your feed, but it lets you choose not just the items you receive a notification for, but also which feeds to include in the unread item count. There's even more to the extension, so let's get into the details after the jump. Read More

Cream: OS X RSS Reader With Instapaper, Pocket & Readability Support

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RSS readers for Mac come in a lot of different shapes. Everything from your desktop background, to the Menu Bar or Notification Center in Mountain Lion can be used to monitor RSS feeds. If you still prefer to read feeds in a window, Cream is a Mac app, worth $4.99 in the Mac App Store, that is worth a try. At the core, Cream is a regular feed reader, but it comes with an extra filter that sorts items by your personal preference. As you read different items in your feed, Cream learns what you like and uses the stats to find other similar news items. Soon, the creaminess filter will be able to sort your feed to display items you are most likely to be interested in. Apart from this intelligent filter, the app has one of the best interfaces you will see on an RSS reader. Like many other RSS readers, it comes packed with a few sample feeds, but lets you choose whether you want to include them too or simply want to import feeds from your Google account, Safari or a file. Read More

Modern Reader Is An Exquisite Google Reader Client For Windows 8

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RSS feeds provide an undisrupted route to keep a tab on your frequently visited websites. Different folks rely on different feeds readers, with Google Reader standing as one of the most popular sources amongst all. There are a bunch of different Google Reader clients available for download, some inheriting a clean interface while others focusing on features and settings. As Windows 8 is already in the offing (check our Windows 8 RTM hands-on), many Modern UI-based Google Readers are also taking a plunge into the Windows Store. Not a while ago, Fawad reviewed Flux for Windows 8, a tile-design Google Reader client for Microsoft’s latest OS. If you’re on a hunt for something even better, Modern Reader is definitely worth giving a try. This elegant Google Reader app for Windows 8 is a treat to the eyes and lets you easily manage and read all your feeds without accessing desktop, or web browser, for that matter. The interface looks exquisite, but is further customizable via few different selectable themes, the developer has thrown in. Let's explore more past the jump. Read More

Flux: Elegant, Tile-Based Google Reader Client For Windows 8

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From the operating system itself to the apps coming out for it, everything related to Windows 8 seems to be a lot more fancy than all the previous versions combined. The sleek and colorful Start Screen, the futuristic look of apps, and everything else seems like it is designed to attract new customers towards the product. Yesterday, I covered an app for Windows 8 called LockPic that lets users change the lock screen background image, and some days ago, Waqas covered Fresh Paint, a painting app built exclusively for Windows 8. Even though it is only the RTM version of Windows 8 and there is still some time in the final release, a lot of apps are already available for download in the Windows Store. The Store works in the same way that Google Play works for Android, or iTunes App Store works for iOS; there are both free and paid apps available. Today, we have a beautiful new app for Windows 8 called Flux, which allows you to follow your Google Reader feeds without opening the desktop. You can check out all your RSS subscriptions from a unified interface, with options to choose articles as favorites, mark them as unread, and view the mobile version of the post. Read More

Highlightr Ranks RSS Items Based On Their Social Buzz In Google Reader [Chrome]

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For anyone who uses Google Reader as their primary RSS reader, finding new items in the aggregator is nothing new. The number of items, however, would depend on the number of feeds that you've subscribed, and if that is a lot, daily unread items might touch staggering numbers. As Google Reader, by default, does not offer an extensive set of filtering options, it might be hard to locate what really interests you. This is where Highlightr comes in useful. This is a simple Chrome extension that basically highlights popular feed items using rank calculations based on the popularity of the article across multiple social networks, like Twitter, Facebook, Google+ etc, and adds a rank at the end of each post title. The higher the rank, the more popular the article is. Details past the jump. Read More

Streamified: Merge All Your Social & RSS Feeds With Google+ [Chrome]

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It's always more convenient if, instead of opening social media websites in multiple windows or tabs, you're allowed to view all your social network feeds and updates from one central location. Streamified is an extension for Chrome that gives you an overview of your social networks as well as RSS feeds within Google+. It saves you the trouble of having to visit each social media website by letting you view all the activity from a single window. The extension supports Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Instagram & Google Reader; feeds from all these networks and services can be added to your Google+ stream. This will not only simplify the process of sharing images and links with others, but also allow you to quickly update your status across all selected social media accounts. In short, Streamified provides a one-stop solution to keep tabs on all important social media feeds. More after the break. Read More

Newsify For iPhone Presents Your Google Reader Feed Like A Newspaper

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Owing to its importance for a large number people, Google Reader has got a variety of clients on almost all major platforms. As iOS has the most apps in its App Store, compared to all other smartphone platforms, it makes sense that it has got a respectable amount of Google Reader clients as well. Mostly a service’s client is considered good if it provides all the features present in the original offering. There are many iPhone apps that do that pretty comprehensively, but the newly released Newsify goes a step further, and brings a whole new interface to Google Reader on your iPhone. This elegant app displays all the items in your Reader account as part of a personalized newspaper. Apart from that, you can manage all other aspects of your feeds with complete ease and convenience. Read More

‘Google Reader Inline’ Pulls Full Text For Truncated Feeds [Chrome]

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Won't it be great if you could read full-text feeds within Google reader, without having to open all those extra tabs? Google Reader is a popular RSS and Atom feed reader that displays partial content for certain feeds. In order to view full-content, you have to right-click the links and open them in new tabs. This process can not only be time consuming, but also causes the tab bar to get cluttered after a while. Google Reader Inline is a Chrome extension that makes things easier by converting truncated feeds into full ones automatically. It loads full-form articles within the Google Reader frame, so you no longer have to open new tabs to view full content. Moreover, you can even view the original article in a neat page that is overlaid the current one. You can then click anywhere outside the page to go back to your feeds. Read More

Reader2Go: Read & Manage Google Reader Feeds Even When Offline [WP7]

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As a blogger, it's a must for me to stay up to date with the latest happenings in the tech world, and there is none more useful tool for that than Google Reader. The feed aggregator is also used by people from many other fields, and is certainly one of the most useful services available on the net. Despite the large number of Google Reader users on Windows Phone 7 , the Mango platform still does not have an official client for the service. A few good third-party apps exist which offer a pretty good replacement for an official client, and Reader2Go just might be the best of this lot. You will be hard pressed to spot any feature which is available in the web version of the service but isn’t there in this app. The app also supports live tiles, and you can know all about it by heading past the break. Read More

Icon Badger: View Count Of Unread Items For Pinned Tabs [Chrome]

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While pinning tabs is quite convenient, you might lose the ability to see the unread item notifications that many websites add to the favicon. This is where Icon Badger, a Chrome extension, comes in handy. It takes care of the problem for you by placing a count of unread messages or items to the favicons of various popular websites.  This nifty little tool provides an easy way for you to see new items at a glance, even when your tabs are pinned or when you’ve got a bunch of tabs open. The extension works for many popular websites, such as Google Reader, Gmail, Facebook, Twitter and more. Read More

Remove Clutter From Google Reader & Hide Left Sidebar [Chrome]

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The new Google Reader  design hasn’t been received well. While the old layout wasn’t the most stunning way imaginable to present your feed, it didn’t need the cosmetic changes that Google made to ensure all its services and their interfaces blend well together. The new interface seems to be cleaner and incorporates the black Google bar well but Google Reader is still pretty cluttered. Google Reader Readable, an extension for Chrome, provides users with an extremely minimal interface for focusing purely on Google Reader articles. The extension is specially useful for people who tend to get distracted by sidebars and other content on Google Reader. It works by removing clutter and displaying articles in a neat and clean layout. Moreover, the left navigation panel only appears when you hover your mouse over the area, keeping it hidden so you don't get distracted while browsing RSS feeds. Read More