If you read a lot of blogs to keep up with the world like me, you might find Google Reader your best friend. The Google Reader is a great portal that consolidates all my RSS feeds. I was literally shocked when I opened the Google Reader and found the following window popped up. They are going to shut down the Google Reader service by July 1, 2013.

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1. Backup Your Google Reader Data

The first thing that I do is to try to find out why on earth Google shut down a successful product as Reader. No explanation provided but they do allow you to download the Google Reader data with the Takeout. I did my backup immediately and I suggest you do the same. You can find how to do it in the “Learn more” link.

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2. Migrate to An Alternative Service (I picked Feedly)

The next thing I did was to find an alternative service for my future readings. A few Google search (thanks Google) shows that Feedly is a good candidate. The reasons are,

  • Firstly, it has plugins available for Chrome, Firefox and Safari, it also has the mobile apps for IOS and Android. So it can guaranty my readings across all my devices. (I have been happily using Firefox in PC and FeeddlerRSS in my iPhone  previously);
  • Secondly, the migration from Google Reader to Feedly is effortless. Their IOS apps descriptions read like this “Feedly: Your Google Reader, Youtube, Google News, RSS…”

I can imagine Feedly is going to scavenge a lot of users from the death of Google Reader. Actually according to the TechCrunch report, they already picked up half million users since the announcement.

Here I am going to show you how to migrate to Feedly.

2.1 Install the plugin for the web browser

If you go to http://www.feedly.com, it will automatically detect the web browser you are using and offer the right plug in to install.

If you are using Firefix: after you click the “Get Feedly for Firefox”, you will be prompt to install plugin.

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If you are using Chrome, you will be offered to install the apps from the Chrome Web store.

 

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2.2 Login To Your Gmail Account

After installation of the plugin, click the “login” link on the right top corner. Don’t worry, you don’t need to create and remember a new account. It will prompt to login your Gmail account instead.

 

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2.2 Allow Feedly to Access the Google Data

All you need to do is to click the “Allow Access” button to get to the Google Reader Data.

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After the Feedly is loaded, it looks like this. Actually the magazine style of reading looks pretty comfortable.

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I also tried their iPhone apps, so far so good.

One thing I am not quite sure is what will happen when Google Reader officially died. Do we need to make changes to the account? Anyway, if that’s the case, the backup file will come in handy.

Do you find any other alternative tool for Google Reader good? Let us know.


What You Should Do Before Google Shut Down Google Reader
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