Google Reader Closing!

Back in the day, when I first started blogging, I relied on Bloglines to keep all my blog reading in one place.

Then Bloglines closed down and I kind of, sort of freaked out because I didn't know where else to go.  A couple of bloggers suggested Google Reader, and at first I was a little intimidated because it was completely different to Bloglines.  I did take the plunge and then grew to love it.

Have been using it for a few years now and that's where all my blog feeds reside.

As if I knew this was going to happen, about two months ago, I started moving some of my favorite blogs to my sidebar and use that to visit everyone.  Though I still go to Google Reader at least once or twice a week.

I hadn't been there for about a week and a half and when I logged in this morning, I got the message "Google Reader will close down on July 1, 2013".

UGH!!!!

No real explanation, just that it's closing down.  So now, here we are, a few years later and I have to figure out how to get the hundreds of blog links I have, saved.  And to where? 

I decided to write this post for all of you out there who currently use Google Reader and just found out about the closure, and for those who did not yet know....now you do.

First thing I did was get online and search for alternatives or sites similar to Google Reader, then spent this morning trying out a few places so that I could give you all an alternative.  I need one, but I figured that you all would need one too and I wanted to be able to have something to share to help you through this process.

So, there are a few alternatives out there, like Twitter (though I don't use Twitter so I'm not sure how that would work), Flipboard, Pulse, Feedly, Taptu , Netvibes, Newsblur, The Old Reader.    If you do a quick google search there are many news articles, blog pages etc.  giving out alternatives and other ways to help transition.

I took a look at some, and I will tell you right now that Pulse is not worth it, in my opinion.  It is very iffy and confusing and I could not for the life of me figure out how to add an RSS feed.  Bummer, because I have the app on my Kindle and I know many of you do too, so it would have been ideal.

Feedly
Feedly is a news aggregator or RSS feed reader application for various Web browsers and mobile devices running iOS and Android. It compiles news feeds from a variety of online sources for the user to customize and share with others.

Pulse
The application displays news from multiple RSS feeds in a single page using a tile based interface. Pulse has been praised by users for its sleek, easy to use design.

Flipboard
Flipboard is a social-network aggregation, magazine-format application software for Android and iOS.
It collects the content of social media and other websites and presents it in magazine format and allows users to "flip" through their social-networking feeds and feeds from websites that have partnered with the company.

Taptu
Taptu is a social media and technology company that builds platforms, tools and applications that enable highly personalized creation, curation, recommendation, search, discovery, management, consumption and sharing of content across all personal screen-based devices, and most significantly on touch screen mobile devices, including phones running the operating systems iOS (iPhone) and Android.

The Old Reader
The Old Reader, the ultimate social RSS reader. It's just like the old google reader, only better. We're in beta right now, but we're constantly working on improvements and new features.

Netvibes
Netvibes is a personalized dashboard publishing platform for the Web composed of widgets that are pulled from a widget list open to third party developers.

Newsblur
NewsBlur is a personal news reader bringing people together to talk about the world.
After looking at them all, I've decided to go with Feedly. It's easy to use, it looks like Google Reader and the best part is that it imports all your Google Reader blogs into it.

Feedly is available for a few platforms:
Feedly for iOS
Feedly for Android
Feedly for Chrome
Feedly for Firefox
Feedly for Safari

It was extremely easy.  I went to the website, installed the add on for Firefox (which is the browser I use), and had to restart my browser.  When I did, it immediately opened up for me and all my Google Reader blogs were right there.

Here's a screenshot so you can see what it looks like:

If you want step by step instructions, be sure to visit this page.

I'm really liking it so far, and it's great knowing that when July 1st rolls around I'll be covered and won't lose all my favorite blogs.

I am still finding my way around Feedly, but I do like how it looks and there seems to be a lot of neat functions.

You can organize the blogs, easily remove, change categories etc.

Themes, change the background to whichever color you like.

And I think one of my favorite features so far, is the ability to view each feed in different ways.  Magazine, Mosaic, Cards and Titles.  I've picked Cards which shows you the blogs posts as the picture above.  Love it.

So there you have it.  I do hope I was able to put some of your worries to rest, and give you a few alternatives so that you can start thinking about migrating elsewhere before July 1st.  Nothing like being caught off guard.

If you use something other than Google Reader and think it's a good alternative, feel free to share, it may help someone out :)


EDIT: It was brought to my attention that some of the information in this post is similar to a post on cnet. Yes it is, because that is one of the sites I read this morning while gathering alternatives to share.

So as to not confuse anyone, below are the links to the articles I read, if you want to read them too.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/03/14/google-reader-alternatives/1986865/
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-57574201-233/google-reader-is-dying-but-we-have-five-worthy-alternatives/
http://lifehacker.com/5990456/google-reader-is-getting-shut-down-here-are-the-best-alternatives

www.wikipedia.org

Pssstttt....come here!

Go ahead and sit down, I have a few things to share with you, or rather, show you.

It's a quiet morning here, the base is having a wing down day which means the guys are off for a day of rest. I think they deserve it, they've worked extremely hard the past few weeks, first pulling in 13 and 14 hour shifts during an exercise and then the Air Show. So, they're all home, sleeping and catching up on their rest. I'm sure the internet will be completely bogged down soon once they start getting up and making their way to the computers to play games *snicker*

Ok, so here's the first thing I want to show you. You all know about Google Reader right? I mean, you should, because if it weren't for you guys, I would still be sitting with Bloglines, completely frustrated with feeds not updating and other things.

But did you know about the NEXT button? Oh if you don't, you don't know what you're missing.

Come here, let me show you. If you go to your Google Reader and click on Settings up top, near Your Account.....you can add the Next button to your browser. Let me show you how easy it is.

Isn't that the coolest thing?

Ok now something I want to talk to you about is Earth Hour. If you haven't heard about it, you can go here and read more, or watch the video below. It brought tears to my eyes, I don't know if I'm hormonal or what, let me know if it does the same thing for you.



We didn't participate last year, but we are tomorrow and the kids are super excited about it. I think it's a great opportunity to turn off the computers and the tv's (even though they just mention lights), and do something as a family.

So tomorrow night, between 8:30pm....no matter WHERE in the world you are, at 8:30pm YOUR TIME....you are to turn off all the lights for just one hour, just until 9:30pm. I'm sure we can survive one little hour can't we? And just think we'll be helping the wildlife and the planet, so what better way to get your kids involved?

**************************

Turn out. Take action.

Be part of this historic event.
March 28, 2009, 8:30 pm local time

World Wildlife Fund is asking individuals, businesses, governments and organizations around the world to turn off their lights for one hour – Earth Hour – to make a global statement of concern about climate change and to demonstrate commitment to finding solutions.

**************************

We'll be lighting candles, we'll go outside with flashlights and look at the night life, we'll also just sit on the couch and talk, tell stories, laugh whatever comes to mind. I'll be taking photos and posting them here on the blog too, so you'll see.

And if your kids want to learn more, there is even a great site for them called Earth Hour Kids, they can play games, learn about animals, there's a place for teens, a place for teachers and parents etc.

If you plan to participate, be sure to Sign Up so that you will be counted in.

I'll be putting up a giveaway this afternoon for Bella Sara products. Jasmine is completely hooked on them and loves them, so much so, that Nicholas is actually wanting to play too. There will be two winners, so stay tuned.

I think that is all I wanted to talk about, I can't remember anything else, if I do, I'll let you know.

For now, I'm going to wake up my hubby and then we're going out to lunch, just the two of us which is something we don't do that very often at ALL.

Then it's back home for a few more loads of laundry and cleaning before the kids come home from school. They're so happy that daddy is home today.

Speaking of kids, I need to make an appointment at the eye doctor for both, I think it's time for them to go in and have an eye exam done. Also after the antibiotic ointment they were both fine, but this morning Jasmine woke up again with a little bit of that gunky stuff and her eyes looked a little red again in the corners. I honestly don't understand what is going on and I'm done playing with the normal doctor, I think the eye doctor is the way to go.

Wish me luck and say a prayer that whatever is going on with the eyes gets resolved soon.

I did it....I made the change....

Change is something I've gotten used to in my life, I mean, how could I not being a military wife? With all the deployments and change of station around us, I would be in serious trouble if I turned my nose up at it.

But still when I think about breaking the norm and trying something new, the first feeling I get is this sick one in the pit of my stomach and then the what if's flood my mind and drive me insane. What if it doesn't work? What if you think it's good but in the end it's horrible?

After reading all your comments on Google Reader I decided to just go for it. It was either that or remain with Bloglines which seems to have something against me (and many others out there, I've noticed). I prayed that it would go well and sure enough it did and I'll even say this, I love it, I think it's WAY better than bloglines, in every sense. So I'm now a Google Reader *snicker*

If you're thinking of making the switch but are worried, don't be. It even gives you the option of transferring all your links from Bloglines, something I found out AFTER I manually did them, all 200 of them. LOL I'm surprised I have my little fingers intact with all the mouse clicking and the typing of url's.

I've got all my blogs organized into folders with my Daily Reads, Craft Blogs, Food blogs etc. And I even noticed that I have 170 subscribers to Diary of a SAHM and another 290 to my Food blog. WHOA, where are all you people? Please don't be shy, stop in and say hello, I promise I don't bite.

Alright now that that's out of the way, I had the Parent/Teacher Conferences this afternoon and I walked out of there on cloud nine. Not just one, but both of my children are absolutely brilliant in school....Jasmine is a straight A student and so is Nicholas, though at this point they're not being graded by A's and B's. The highest they can get is an E for Excelling and he had straight E's. Both teachers couldn't tell me enough what hard working, extremely smart and well behaved children I have and how they love having them in their classrooms.

That's something that all parents love hearing isn't it? It makes you stop and realize that you're doing something right, somehow, somewhere, something is clicking and something is being instilled in these little human beings. It makes me feel a lot better about their future, knowing that I'm teaching them to be hard working, respectful human beings. Thank you Lord for blessing me with such amazing children.

As soon as the weather gets a little cooler, I start pulling out my knitting. Funny thing though, I hardly ever finish the projects I start LOL That has to be the one area in my life where I have yet to master, but I'm determined to finish this scarf for Jasmine because I really want to start knitting the little preemie hats for the Knit One, Save One Campaign. For the scarf I decided to challenge myself a bit and am working on a pattern called "My so called scarf". I LOVE it.

And while I was grabbing my camera to snap that photo, I walked by the couch and something caught my eye. The silly Lola was taking a nap on her favorite spot, the corner of the couch pillow but it's not so much that she was napping, it's the WAY she was laying that just cracked me up.

What mom? What do you need, can't you see I'm trying to sleep?

Oh to be a dog in this house, or a child, OR a husband, anything but a plant, those I don't think anyone would want to be. Poor things, that's why I have plastic ones and even those are looking mighty weak lately.

Well I'm off to figure out what to make for dinner, yes I have a menu and no, I don't feel like anything I've written on there. It's one of those days where everything looks good but yet you don't feel like having any of it that moment? It's a toss up right now, I could do Spaghetti w/ Bacon, Portuguese Bean Soup, Barbecue Chicken Pizza or Portuguese Chicken and Rice. Why can't we just have them all? Would that be bad? I mean would like the Food Patrol Police people thingies whatever, come out and arrest us and possibly put us on a diet. On second thought, I better pick one fast, the minute my body hears the word diet it goes beserk and I'll find myself raiding the refrigerator at 1am.

Yeah better decide soon....well I'll go and do that, hope you're all having a wonderful day.