Tag Archives: Google+

Google Reader Shutdown And Finding an Alternative

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Introduction

When I first opened up my Google Reader this morning I receive the notice, “Google Reader will not be available after July 1, 2013”.

At first, I thought, this April’s Fool joke is a bit early, then I checked the Google blog and saw the March 13, 2013 post: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-second-spring-of-cleaning.html, which had the following to say:

“We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites. While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader. Users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with Google Takeout over the course of the next four months.”

It seems that it is true.

As regular readers of the Boca Bits newsletter, and this blog, know I have started posting interesting links found during the month through Google Reader. Now I will have to find something else to keep track of the 200+ RSS subscriptions I check regularly.

Google Reader Alternatives

I decided to check out some of my usual places for information about alternatives, the links to the posts found are as follows:

I am sure there are many other places to check out, the above are the result of a very quick search of some of my favorite sites.

After reading these, Feedly is the front-runner for me.

Looking for Suggestions

The feed reader I am looking for would be able to import from Google Reader, and sync with all my devices, Windows and Android, as well as having online access.

It does not necessarily need to be free or open source,but should have a free trial period to make sure it works for me.

What Do You Use In the Place of Google Reader? Leave a comment, or visit the contact page of this blog to email me directly with any useful information.

Related articles

A List of Links for Learning

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This was found via a public post on Google+ by Brad Aker 02OCT12 at 7:03 PM.

He linked to http://noexcuselist.com/.

This site says:

“The best place on the web to learn anything, free.”

There are links to learning resources for:

  • Academics
  • Music
  • Programming
  • HowTo + DIY
  • eBooks
  • Cooking
  • Languages
  • Other

If you hover your mouse over the links, you can see comments about them.

I have not checked out every link myself, but the ones I have checked, are useful.

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If you are interested in learning, and you should be, check these out. Let me know what you think.

If you know of any other similar lists, let me know about them also.

I am always looking for places to learn new things.

Google – Exact Phrase Searching

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You have moved to a new area and want to find a computer user group nearby. You go to Google.com and search for: computer user group,(results: about 366,000,000).

To search for the exact phrase in Google just enclose the same phrase in double quotation marks like this: “computer user group”, (results: about 123,000).

It should be a lot easier to narrow down when you use an exact phrase search. As you can see by the very broad example above, you would have to dig through over 300 million results of sites without the exact phrase, but only a little over 100 thousand with the exact phrase.

If I search within the 100 thousand for CT (Connecticut) it is narrowed down to 587, for MD (Maryland) 810, etc.

Coming up with a good search phrase and searching for that exact phrase, should keep you from getting frustrated.