Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Using Feedly To Read Your Favorite Blogs

As you may have heard by now, Google has announced that it will discontinue Google Reader on July 1st.  This news has reverberated throughout the internet and people are scrambling to find another RSS reader service to replace Google Reader.  I have personally tried out three services:  Feedly, Bloglovin, and The Old Reader, and my personal favorite is Feedly by far.  So let’s take a look at using Feedly to read your favorite blogs (which I hope includes the Listgirl blog!).  ;)

Feedly has web-extensions for Firefox, Chrome, and Safari web browsers.  It also has a free app for iOS and Android devices.  I first used the Feedly app on my iPad and LOVED the interface for reading blogs.  You can choose between many different views and the way the photos and text are presented is simple yet gorgeous. 

This is my blog on my iPad, using Feedly app to read it.
20130323-IMG_0166.JPG (2)_600

It is extremely easy to migrate over to Feedly from Google Reader.  All you need to do is sign-in to Feedly with your Google account.  Right now Feedly syncs with your Google Reader.  Feedly is working on a solution called Feedly Normandy so that your RSS subscriptions are seamlessly transitioned over to Feedly after Google closes the door on Google Reader in July. 

Let’s take a look at the Feedly interface, using my account as an example.  On the left side are the blogs I’ve subscribed to, and the categories in which I put them into.  All your folders (tags, categories) in Google Reader are imported over, so you don’t have to re-organize all the blogs you read.  If you’re like me and subscribe to a ton of blogs, this is definitely awesome.  Part of the reason I didn’t like the Bloglovin interface as much, was because when I imported my blog subscriptions over, they were just in alphabetical order and I lost all my categories!  Yikes. 

This first view is called “Magazine” view.  It shows some featured posts, plus posts by date underneath that.
Feedly_magazine

There’s a “titles” view, which is more condensed.  This is the most similar to Google Reader.
Feedly_Titles

There’s a “Mosaic” view, which shows more post on the page lined up, with one photo and a snippet of the post.
Feedly_Mosaic

There’s the “Cards” view, which I think sort of looks like Pinterest pins, which I like.
Feedly_Cards

Lastly, there’s the “Full Article” view, which shows the full blog post.  In all the other views, you would click on each post you want to read and it would pop up as a floating window.
Feedly_FullArticle

I’ve set up my Feedly account so that when I first log into my account, it shows me in index of the blogs I subscribe to, organized by my categories that I had done in Google Reader.  From there, I can click on a blog to see the most recent posts.
Feedly_3

One thing I like about my organization is that I have a category called “0_DailyReads”. Those contain the blogs I most frequently visit. I rotate blogs in and out of there periodically. Have this category helps me to hit my current favorite blogs at a glance when I’m really busy. So if I have 15 minutes of spare time, I can just hit my favorites in this category. This screenshot shows various blogs in my “0_DailyReads” category, in the “Cards” view in Feedly.
Feedly_dailyreads

I hope you enjoyed this overview of Feedly.  You have until July 1st before Google Reader goes away to make a choice in regards to which RSS reader to migrate to.  Feedly is my personal favorite. :)

18 comments:

  1. Thanks for taking the time to post all this info. I've been thinking about Feedly but haven't done anything yet. (And of course, listgirl will be in my favorites).

    ReplyDelete
  2. I signed up for Feedly, it is my favorite alternative to Google Reader so far. However, I use the feature on google reader [that apparently no one else uses?] that lets you just create a shortcut button for each list [I sort my blogs in lists also, I follow a TON] and when you click on the shortcut it takes you directly to the post on the blog, rather than in a reader view. I want another reader that lets me do that because I like being able to see everyone's blog design rather than just the reader all the time. If you hear of any options out there like this, let me know!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Linda - I'm not familiar with that shortcut function in Google Reader. Do you have a link to somewhere where I can see how you did that?

      Delete
    2. Ok, I read your blog post about that feature. As far as I know, Feedly does not have that.

      Delete
  3. I'll give it a try. I use bloglovin currently and I'm not that impressed with it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm looking for a system that will allow me to read easily on a computer and on my iPhone and iPad. The one thing I really want is a system that will show me all unread posts (yes, all of them) in the order I want to read them (usually oldest first). Does Feedly do that? I am paranoid about missing articles!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Jay! I think Feedly has what you need. If you click on the "All" on the left side, it will show posts for all the blogs you read. Then on the right side, use the "Title" view. Then use the gear-shaped drop down menu and click on both the "unread only" and "oldest first" filters. Then I think you're all set! :)

      Delete
  5. Thanks for sharing Christine! I've been experimenting with both Feedly and BlogLovin and much prefer Feedly too. The main reason is that it has nice clean images on my iPad where I do the majority of my blog reading from. BlogLovin's images were small (I think meant for the iPhone) so the images that appeared on my iPad was grainy and I did not like that at all. I really hope their Feedly Normandy system rolls over seamlessly or I'll be in trouble. Luckily your blog is bookmarked so I won't lose this.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I just switched and your overview is going to save me an hour of playing around. Thanks!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I've been trying out FeedDemon - any experience with it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Maureen - I have not personally tried out FeedDemon yet. How do you like it?

      Delete
  8. Thanks for the quick tips. I just moved to Feedly a week ago. Peppermint has been raving about it. I know I tried them before and did not like it so I went back to Google reader. They have made a lot of improvements, mainly it is very user friendly. For a low tech person like me that is very important.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Love this! Setting up now- Way to be on the "cutting edge"!

    ReplyDelete
  10. This info is awesome. I was so sad when I saw the notification that Google Reader was going away, and I really appreciated your post about all the things that Feedly does. I've been using Feedly on my phone and I never even realized all that it could do! So I loved seeing all the different features-- especially the way Feedly preserves categories.
    ~Natalie (QSOgirl)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hi ! May I ask a question too ... do you know how to mark one post as read in Feedly ?

    I found how to mark all posts on a specific blog.
    I know you can delete a post from the list, but I have the impression that this delete is not the same as marking it as read (or at least not between Feedly and Google Reader).

    But I can't find how to mark a single post as read ... maybe this will no longer be a problem when I switch to Feedly completely ?

    Thanks !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think if you click on a post and it pops up, then it is marked as read.

      Delete
    2. Hmm, I'll have to give that a try. I switched off the automatic mark as read 'cause I like to decide when reading a post if I like to re-read it later or read it with more attention later on.
      Thanks for the tip.

      Delete

Thanks for stopping by! I love to hear from you!

[feedly mini]