Within hours of the news, one month ago, that Google had decided to shut down Google Reader, the collective intelligence of the Internet settled upon Feedly as one of the best replacements for people who can't live without their news reader/blog aggregator.
As a longtime user of Google Reader, I filed this information away but proceeded to do nothing about it, because I'm a lazy good-for-nothing slacker. Who's got time to migrate your data? What a hassle. Besides, Google wasn't going to permanently shut down Reader until July 1. So I had plenty of time. (Just like I still have plenty of time to do my taxes.)
But while researching new and interesting apps this week, I saw that Feedly had released new versions of its mobile apps for iOS and Android that were getting good reviews. Perfect! Under the guise of checking out a potential App of the Week candidate, I could get off my ass and move into new newsreader digs.
Well. I don't think I can remember an easier, more hassle-free data migration. This is how you dream things should work. The entire process required about as long as it takes to input your Google Reader log-in info. No fumbling around necessary -- Feedly proactively asked me if I wanted to sync my Reader data into Feedly, and then walked me through it in a jiffy. And that's just smart: According to Feedly, more than 3 million Google Reader users moved to Feedly in the first two weeks after Google's announcement. Making that transition as easy as possible is clearly paying off.
If you've never used a news reader, or fallen out of love with your old news reader because you're getting all your links from Twitter, or, like me, you've been procrastinating dealing with the Google Reader mess, Feedly's app is worth a look. It's easy to add new feeds and reorganize you old ones. It might even reignite your old blog aggregating habits. I know that I've enjoyed playing with it, already, a feeling that I had lost with Google Reader. Reader felt like a ghost town. Feedly feels like a bustling city, fully of dynamic energy, ready to grow. And who knows, maybe now, I'll even get around to pruning and reorganizing and updating all my feeds.
After I get my taxes done.
For iOS.
For Android.
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