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Google Reader Woes Update

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Back in March I lamented, along with many others, the announcement that Google Reader is being discontinued. As I wrote, I have been exploring the use of Outlook for RSS. I also said that I dislike it, and my opinion has not changed. My team uses RSS to selectively gather information from specific feeds that we then pass along to others. We have found a replacement for Google Reader and a new method for sharing that Slawyers may be interested in.

Jennifer Merchant, one of the fantastic library team members at the Field Law Libraries, was tasked with finding an web based RSS reader with some challenging requirements:

  1. Must work in Internet Explorer
  2. Must be able to copy and paste the heading with time and date and the article or a portion of it in one step
  3. Must be able to use a shared login and password
  4. Must be able to import our long list of feeds

After much painful testing of a bunch of alternatives, we decided to go with Bloglines. Here is our Library Procedures Manual note:

On July 1, 2013, Google Reader will shut down. Finding a suitable replacement for Google Reader has been challenging because cutting and pasting from many of the readers does not work well, or at all. The biggest challenge was finding a reader that included the metadata – date, source, author – when pasting to the email.

Bloglines appears to be a suitable replacement. It allows cutting and pasting, and it includes the metadata when pasted to an email.

Concerns:

  1. Once pasted in the email, the item requires some reformatting.
  2. Not sure how often it refreshes. There is a difference (an hour or two) between what is posted in Google Reader and in Bloglines, but that seems to be limited to the news alerts.
  3. Monitor Google Alerts after July 1/13, just in case these shut down along with Reader.

To access Bloglines, go to www.bloglines.com, enter the following:
– – redacted – –

My team accesses Bloglines for our shared task RSS gathering using a ‘library’ account. We have to coordinate access times since it is a single account, but it does make task sharing easy.

I am still trying to decide between Bloglines and Outlook based RSS for the things that I monitor for personal current awareness.

Comments

  1. Kristin Hodgins
    May 28th, 2013 at 10:24 pm

    Am I the only one who is naively still clinging to the hope Google changes its mind and decides to keep Google Reader going?

    Thanks for posting about Bloglines as a viable alternative to Google Reader; July 1 is looming, and I suppose I’ll soon have to admit defeat and look at alternatives, including this one.

  2. Bunnie Watson
    May 29th, 2013 at 11:43 am

    I switched from Bloglines to Google Reader a couple of years ago when Bloglines’ demise was imminent. I’m glad to see they are still going strong after all. While I don’t know if it meets your needs entirely, I have found Feedly to be a very usable replacement for Reader – at least in a personal context.