The end of Google Reader was a setback no doubt but not the end of the road for aggregation of feeds. You have Digg, Feedly and various other equally efficient reading services that can do the job of aggregating your feeds. RSS or Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication is one such service that provides a crisp summary of what has been published on a particular site. The RSS came into being to help readers get updates about what is happening at their favorite sites so that they do not have to open them in separate tabs to get to the home pages of those sites.
Most Useful For Smartphones
This service is ideal for mobile phone usage as the reader can now condense all updates for favorite sites instead of having to visit the sites themselves to see what is new. The choices you have in front of you to catch up on the latest updates are as under:
a) Feedly – It has done a very efficient job of replacing the Google Reader and is very popular. You can use your Feedly account to get updates through some of the other apps as well and not depend only on one. Unlike Google Reader which did not enable third party apps to connect to it, Feedly does not have such restrictions. These third party apps can now connect to the account, grab your feeds and display them. It has set high standards that RSS readers have appreciated and its very elegant method of sharing articles with services like Pocket, Evernote distinguishes it from other RSS choices.
While the desktop version is good enough, the mobile version too allows organization of subscriptions into separate folders and the addition of new sites you may want to follow quite easily. The app as well as the service is free but you can avail of a premium version of Feedly for $45 annually that enables better search and integration with services like the IFTTT, Buffer and so on. It is possible to manage your daily usage requirements with the free version though and only publishers or real power users may need the premium one.
b) Press – This is one service that impresses you with its neat design so that your reading is not hindered by the app. Press though is minimalistic and does not have everything that Feedly has. It has maintained a sleeker and need to have features, though you do have choices when it comes to images, the frequency of sync with feeds as well as widgets styling. The Press is ideal for Android as it connects to its native sharing feature that quickly brings up all useful apps that you wish to send content. It is also possible to hide the UT or use swiping gestures for navigation. There are some tweaks you will do well to make use of to get more out of Press.
The above two apps are recommended though there are others as well you may want to try out before zoning in on the one you like.
