Something's going on with Google Reader but nobody knows what

Can't read RSS feeds at the moment for some reason

By Jasper Hamill, 1st July 2013

Journalists and, well, mainly other journalists are mourning the loss of Google Reader, a news aggregating RSS reader which will be euthanised today.

The Chocolate Factory will close the Reader software as of midnight tonight, California time, forcing RSS fans to find a new service.

Mostly, people appear to be turning to Feedly, a pretty looking but rather fiddly service which nonetheless promises to get better. It allows direct integration of Google Reader feeds, making for an almost totally idiotproof transfer. Some 500,000 new people signed up to use it following Google's Reader-killing announcement on June 15.

Feedly even sent Reader a happy retirement card, which no doubt contains a bit of schadenfreude behind its cuddly image of a big, weird blue beast walking off into the sunset, followed by the RSS symbol on legs.

Digg-ers have their own reader, which is currently in beta, and AOL are also preparing their own offering.

You can get your data out of Google Reader through an overwrought process hidden within Google Takeout, a product designed by the Google Data Liberation Front - a name chosen with no apparent irony. Rather than allowing a backdoor for spooks to access tonnes of personal info, this service allows users to download their data, which can be imported into other services.

The twitter-verse is predictably grumpy about the end of Google Reader, even though the move towards social content may have been a key factor in the chocolate factory's decision to axe their RSS service. Here are a selection of tweets:

Google Reader, surrounded by family and RSS apps, utters last words. "Mark. As." [Long, anticipatory pause.] "Read."
— Tim Murphy (@timothypmurphy) June 29, 2013

Shh! RT @daveweigel Not mourning Google Reader because I can't read. Like most journos, I pay a guy named Boris to summarize articles for me
— Max Fisher (@Max_Fisher) July 1, 2013

Wow. @Digg Reader is a damn-near perfect lifeboat from the sinking HMS Google Reader. Get your email in to get an invite ASAP.
— David Hobby (@strobist) June 28, 2013

How are you coping without Google Reader? ®

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