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2013-03-14 Google Reader Alternative

Google Reader is being axed. I used it every day.

Evan Prodromou says on Google+
Why, it’s almost as if it would be in your best interest to run network services under your own control instead of using quote-unquote free ones run by someone whose priorities are not aligned with yours.

I might consider it. Years ago, I used rss2email by Aaron Swartz. The irony is that I’ll be reading my blog posts—in Gmail! X(

There are other alternatives. Here’s a crowdsourced list. I see that The Old Reader, for example. “It’s just like the old Google reader, only better.” Here’s a warning sign, however: “We’re in beta right now […]” Will it cost money eventually? How much? I’m not opposed to paying a little money. After all, I want the service to have a future.

Me on Twitter
I read a rant once saying: “Please, services on the Internet, take my money! I want you to have a decent business plan!”

So, run a network service under my own control, or pay somebody else…

As for running something under my own control, I must confess that I’m still averse to running PHP and MySQL on a server of mine. Somehow I keep thinking of the combination as insecure. I downloaded Tiny Tiny RSS and looked at it (also on GitHub).

There is also something about RSS that makes me cringe: If every blog reader installs a feed aggregator that checks its feeds every ten minutes, this won’t scale. A few central aggregators that poll feeds and serve their user interface when requested by users seems like a better solution from a technical point of view.

On my portable devices I’m using the Reeder app. Like many others, it depends on Google Reader. We’ll see what its creator will switch to.

Tags: RSS

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