Google Reader is shutting down, which is a big deal since this is how many people subscribe to and read their favorite bird blogs. Bloggers should be concerned too, because there may be many people who stop receiving your feeds and your readership will plummet. Luckily for everyone, there are some great choices to continue on. Let us know in the comments if you are using another service you think we should recommend.
My favorite that I have tried so far is Feedly. Feedly has a good web interface you can use from any browser as well as smartphone apps. Feedly allows for a lot of customization to how the feeds look, and does an excellent job of formatting posts to be easy to read and look great. It also has excellent third-party app support which means that if you use a specific app to read your RSS feeds, it may already be set to sync with Feedly. It’s also free to use and is the service that many developers and users are adopting the most right now.
Many people also like the new Digg Reader. Digg Reader also has a good web app interface with a minimalist design that reminds me of Google Reader. It also syncs with mobile apps for the iPhone and iPad. The service integrates with Digg and is free to use.
Either service let you import your current Google Reader feeds and you can basically continue on as if nothing had happened. To subscribe to Nemesis Bird, you can also paste our RSS feed (http://feeds.feedburner.com/nemesisbird) into either reader and get all of our updates in whichever service you choose.
If you are not already using a feed reader, here is a general overview. When we publish a post, these RSS platforms see that we have updated our site and, if you have subscribed to our feed, our latest article will show up for you the next time you launch your RSS reader. For many people this eliminates checking a website every couple days just to see if they have posted something new. This is a huge timesaver if you want to follow more than a small handful of blogs.