Thursday, March 14, 2013

sic transit...

which is not a reference to the state of transportation policy in this country...even if it is embarrassing when I mention our lack of truly high speed rail to people in France.

No, in this case it's a reference to the recent announcement that Google Reader is going to go away. As things go, it's not the worst news in the world. I suspect that a lot of people have no idea what Google Reader is, let alone an RSS feed. I doubt that anyone is going to be storming the barricades any time soon over this one.

Still, for people like me, with a lot of spare time, and the desire to quickly see information from multiple web sites, it's disappointing, and maybe just a little bit disorienting. Its change, and sometimes it seems to me that the older I get, the less I like change, even small ones. (Small change is an entirely different story.  Send me your quarters, dimes, nickels....)

3 comments:

Angie said...

I'm still having a hard time deciding on what I'm going to replace Google Reader with. I converted to Reader from Bloglines when they were supposed to be shutting down so I thought I might go back, but I tried that and was not pleased. I think Feedly will be my next stop. Please share if you decide what RSS reader you've chosen to switch to.

Cerulean Bill said...

For the Windows PC, I'm using RSS Bandit, which isn't too bad. I tried RSS Owl, but it didn't believe in folders, and I totally do. According to the guy who wrote/maintains Instapaper, this is all a good thing. I suppose, from the ecosystem perspective, it's good, but from the ground level, not so much.

Can't find anything for the Android tablet. I have a hunch I am going to start using StumbleUpon a lot more.

BTW, I left a comment on your site the other day, but I think it might have gotten marked as being from Anonymous. Prolific writer, that Anonymous.

Cerulean Bill said...

Oh, and I tried Feedly, also Newsblur. Both seemed to really want to integrate social media. Not too keen on that.

I have dibs in on The Old Reader, but I gather they are swamped. I'm not exactly sure why. Apparently, they post-process your OPML file, or something like that.

And I hear that DIGG is writing their own, to be just as good as GRdr was....um, yeah. I'm not a DIGG fan anyway, and I doubt strongly they will be able to keep from improving it. According to their lights, anyway.