Google reader is dead. Long live… feedly?

It was announced today that come summer, Google Reader is being scrapped. Woe.

I use google reader for all my blog subscriptions. I use it on my desktop and iPad, I loved the clean, fuss-free chronological interface. Loved. I started the hunt for a new reader this morning, and after reading this Wired article about the demise of google reader, I decided to try feedly.

Here’s my ‘I’ve been using it for 30 minutes’ review of feedly.

Feedly sort of syncs with google reader, so at the moment it can carry across all of your subscriptions. It also syncs up any items that you had starred on google reader, adding them to your saved area in feedly.

The interface is still clean, but it feels more progressive than google reader (there’s integrations with various social networks that google reader didn’t have). You can also view items in a variety of interesting ways…

Feedly puts a bigger emphasis on categories than google reader, which makes organisation much easier (they’re more visual, and easier to organise via a drag and drop interface).

(yeah, that’s right… I have a kittens category.)

In terms of article presentation, feedly does it right. One gripe I’ve always had with RSS is that pretty articles that rely on on-site CSS usually end up looking really shit in google reader, their basic CSS even made H2s look like something from 1995. Feedly uses great typography with reader friendly font sizes & line-height (leading).

Feedly also produce a fantastic iPad (and iPhone, android & kindle) app, something I always grumbled about with google reader.. their mobile version was pretty shitty. The app allows you to swipe between articles (!), and read in non-linear ways (non-linear/chronological is so weird for me, so I’m not sure I’ll read that way).

Feedly are well aware that they’re going to get tonnes of new google reader migrants, so have been blogging about making the transition.

Will you join me?