Farewell Google Reader and Some Solutions

You may have heard on Wednesday that Google announced the closure of Google Reader. I know that the majority of you are subscribed to my blog through Google Friend Connect, which suggests that you use Google Reader to view my blog. As of the 1st of July, this service will be shut down. I'd hate to lose you, so I thought I'd be proactive and offer some advice on what to do, and what I do around my blog reading. Google Friend Connect is still here (for now) but I suspect that this subscription method has a shelf life too, so I encourage you to subscribe in other ways as well, perhaps during this GR upheaval is a good time to refresh how you subscribe to and read blogs.

I was planning to post about subscription methods in my Blog Tips series that I have planned for May, so I'll keep this short. I use Bloglovin' to read blogs. It is free to sign up, and the app is excellent, I actually read a lot of blogs on my phone while I commute, so it works out great for me. Another popular option is Feedly. I signed up today and I have to say, I'm impressed. I imported my GR subscriptions and they are now safe once GR shuts down. I'm actually loving the look of Feedly too, so I'll probably keep both Feedly and Bloglovin' for now.

I'll keep my GFC friends too, and continue to follow new blogs on GFC as a show of support, I know how much those GFC numbers mean on a business level. However, I will also always subscribe via another method as well, Bloglovin' for now. If you'd like some other options, here is a good article. And Dana speaks about her thoughts on the Google Reader shutdown and it's implications here. RSS is another service that is a little tenuous in Google-Land but it seems to be holding, for now.

Let me know if you have any questions, I'll try to help out, though I'm not an expert on this! I'd love to keep in touch with you after Google Reader is decommissioned  so please update your reader. Thanks for subscribing to me blog, it warms the butterfly in my heart :)


Here's a few more ways you can keep up to date: Feedly (Blog Posts/Interaction) HelloCotton (Blog Posts/Interaction - Similar to Bloglovin') Twitter (Blog Posts, Conversations, Instagram pics, Vine videos and random thoughts!) Instagram (Pictures from my life) Pinterest (Occasional blog post, mostly my inspirations though)
Kitty xo