Today Google Reader will be closed. Top 4 alternatives

Despite the fact that many competitors (including Facebook, AOL and LinkedIn) decided to take advantage of the Google Reader closure and started building their own news readers, Google was confident in its decision and today will close the Reader. The second sad news - is that for now there is no decent replacement to Google Reader. So for while RSS users will have to survive somehow and watch the progress of the new RSS services. Perhaps the best replacement to Google Reader right now is Feedly. Three months ago Feedly worked only as a browser plug-in and used Google Reader to pull news. Recently they have launched the full-fledged online service with its own backend.



What's bad in Feedly for now:

- No search

- You can not change the feeds order in folder, and Feedly automatically jumps between threads after reading them

- The mobile application too glamorous (you can't remove images and covers) and doesn't allow even change the order of folders



Digg recently launched its promised alternative to Google Reader - Digg Reader. It looks even prettier than Feedly, but has much more bugs. It's impossible to use it right now  because of glitches with feed updates and displaying unread news. The mobile app (decent, by the way) is only available for the iPhone.



We were surprisingly pleased with the new AOL Reader. At first it was terribly slow, but now is working and updating fairly quickly. And by the convenience of settings - it's probably the best. Besides, this service (unlike most of the others) has a clear business scheme - the banner in the right column. AOL just needs to resolve the issue with the mobile version.



The Old Reader is running quite smoothly now. But it's supported by the small team without monetization plan, and the resources (for it's normal operation) - cost money. Will its small team be able to turn The Old Reader into the profitable business? We'll see.

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