Top 3 Google Reader alternatives

Finally, it’s the day to bid goodbye to Google Reader. Google is all set to pull the plug on its popular tool for viewing RSS feeds due to waning popularity. Launched in 2005, the service was adept at bringing everything one cares about on the Internet under a single roof. Furthermore, it synced the feeds across all devices. One could subscribe to RSS feeds of their favourite sites/blogs, and the feeds would reach them once the site/blog was updated. While there has been a shift in the way people access feeds today, there are enough people who are accustomed to or use Google Reader extensively on desktops. For these users, we have picked top three alternatives to Google Reader.
Feedly
Google Reader’s demise will benefit Feedly immensely. Feedly comes across as an apt and direct replacement for Google Reader. It is the most popular Google Reader alternative with a neat and slick user interface. It can be easily personalised just like Google Reader with a newspaper-like interface or an image-centric view. Considering that most users are looking for a mobile friendly RSS feed service, Feedly is extremely app friendly. Available for web, Android and iOS, it syncs feeds across various devices. This means, you can easily access feeds on your smartphone or tablet and then pick up from where you left on the laptop. To further up its chances as the best alternative, Feedly has been adding a slew of features lately. The set of features includes a new syncing service, keyboard shortcuts, extension-free web app and more.

By far, the best alternative

Digg Reader
Digg Reader was announced shortly after Google announced the imminent demise of its Reader. It has been in works for the past three months and in the beta testing stage for a week now. Though Digg Reader is officially launched, one could call it a work in progress. It has adopted a similar Google Reader-like interface and one has to sign in using their Google account. Digg Reader allows users to share stories on Instagram, social networks and obviously on Digg. It has a filter that shows all trending articles from your feeds. Digg Reader has some features in the pipeline, such as viewing unread items and marking items as unread. With the number of quick updates it has been getting, it looks like Digg Reader is all geared up to replace the Google Reader, but isn’t there quite yet. It has also launched an iOS app, while an Android app is expected in the coming weeks.

Google Reader-like interface

AOL Reader
AOL has also launched its own tool for viewing RSS feeds dubbed AOL Reader. It is a simple web RSS feeds reader that comes without any bells and whistles. It can be accessed using your Twitter, Google or Facebook accounts. It is not as slick as Feedly or Digg, but AOL does make it easy to get new content from several news sources, spread across numerous categories. It comes with different layout formats, including a thumbnail kind (card view) of display that shows the headline and lead image of every article. Users can mark articles to read later and AOL also shows a catalogue of suggested sites. AOL Reader has a lot of potential as a web application, but the hiccup is missing support for mobile platforms. Nevertheless, AOL is said to be working on smartphone and tablet apps.

Not quite there, but worth considering

Besides, you could check out some other options such as The Old Reader and Flipboard . Desktop users can also take a look at Reeder (Mac) and Outlook. The Opera browser also has a default RSS icon.