It would try the patience of angels

[venta]

Never mind all this popery. The big news of the day is that Google is retiring Google Reader in July.

I use Google Reader, and am thus disappointed. On the plus side, with that gone, I'll have no reason to be signed into my Google account most of the time. I do use Google Docs, but that tends to be an infrequent sign-in-use-sign-out business. And anything which takes me one step away from Google's Giant Data Extraction Vortex is probably a good thing.

I'm lightly surprised, though. Apparently usage of Google Reader is declining. I'm not sure if this is indicative of better software being out there, or of a general decline in RSS use. Maybe all the cool kids use Facetweet as aggregators these days?

So, ladies and gentlemen of LJ, how should I read my RSS feeds in the future?

[Poll #1901989]


(Ars Technica is running a poll on "where should we go instead?", and they probably have a slightly bigger readership than I do. They're also better informed about the large number of RSS readers which rely on Google Reader to work.)

Comments

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

I love that everyone so far has said 'LJ'. I got a load of flak recently for admitting this was how I received my RSS feeds!

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Yes, I found that cheering too! It always astonishes me how frequently it turns out I'm the first person to want to do so when I go to add a new (to me) blog to the LJ syndication page. I'd begun to think I must be the only one who used it, but obviously not after all.

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

Me too, and me too!

[ringbark.livejournal.com]

Me too and me too...though I often get surprised by how often I'm *not* the first...

[venta.livejournal.com]

Not strictly relevantly: do you use an Android app for LJ? If so, which and is it any good?

For $boring_reasons I can't install any LJ apps to try out, but am hoping to get a new phone soon and would be interested to have an app if there is such a thing going.

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

I don't myself - I just read it via the phone's web browser. But they certainly exist, and some people seem to like them.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's what I do at present. My phone's browser is a bit shonky, though, in that it ignores things like <i> and <b> tags - plus you don't get the fun of polls that way :)

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

My browser, which is just the standard one that comes with an HTC Desire, handles all of that without a problem, including the polls. So you may well find when you upgrade that you don't need an app.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Ah, good! I was rather hoping that all mobile browsers weren't that rubbish :)