Google has just answered one of the questions I’ve been wondering about for awhile now. The closing of Google Reader due to declining use seems to be a clear indication that most people aren’t using RSS as part of their personal knowledge management (PKM) system (or maybe they don’t have one at all?)
RSS has been the foundational part of my personal PKM system for years and RSS is the most efficient way to keep up on the news and information you want.
Among the many great things that Google Reader does did:
- connect to/ integrate with so many other services and apps (Twitter, Flipboard, Delicious, etc etc)
- universally accessible via computer, tablet and smartphone (esp if used with apps like Feedly & Flipboard)
- easy to share / curate information to other places like Twitter, LinkedIn, G+ etc
Most importantly your RSS reader serves a mission control central for accumulating and organizing the information you choose so that you can consume it when and where you want to consume it.
Now I’m off to look at what will be able to replace that very important aggregation function in my PKM.
If you’re a Google Reader user, what are you looking at as a replacement? My short list includes:
- Revisiting bloglines.com which was my very 1st feed reader; I think the mobile access and app integration may be lacking but it’s been awhile since I’ve looked at it.
- Feedly – has a nice mobile app to go along with Firefox and Chrome add-ins as well as good sharing options.
- Flipboard – in browsing their documentation this may be the direction I’m leaning towards at the moment
Related articles
- Feedly is Ready to Transition all Google Reader Users (technologytell.com)
- The Best Google Reader Alternatives (techpp.com)
- Google Reader’s Death Is Proof That RSS Always Suffered From Lack Of Consumer Appeal (techcrunch.com)
Mike Taylor 