Wednesday, June 26, 2013

I've Switched to Feedly for My Blog Reading

When I heard that Google Reader was shutting down on 30 June 2013, my reaction was "oh no, how will I be able to read the 1,4xx blogs that I am subscribed to on Google Reader?"

I decided to wait for someone smarter than me to figure out what RSS reader feeds were available to use as a substitute, and the consensus, at least among bloggers that I read, is that Feedly (www.feedly.com) works nearly the same as Google Reader.  There are differences, however.

So I registered (for FREE) for Feedly last month, and have been using it all of this week.  Here are some screen shots, with some of the features of Feedly:

1)  My default screen shows All of the unread posts in Full post mode under the "My Feedly" column in the left-hand column:


At the top of the left-hand column is a link for "Add content" - you can add a feed by clicking that button.

I'm also showing the complete list of the blogs in my feed (there is a small icon to the left of the "Uncategorized" word in the left column - click that and all of your blog titles will appear).  There are link items in the left-hand column for:

*  Today
*  Saved for Later
*  All
*  Uncategorized

and below the list of blogs on my page above, there are link items for:

*  Index
*  Recently Read
*  Preferences
*  Themes
*  Feedly Blog
*  Help

Here is the bottom of one of the posts:


Further down the right-hand column, at the bottom of each post, there are icons for:

*  Google+1
*  Twitter
*  LinkedIn
*  Facebook
*  Buffer (?)
*  M.416 (?)
*  Save for Later
*  Tag
*  Other social Media
*  Remove from the list

2)  At the top of the right-hand column, are the headings for the list type (in my case, the category "All"), a link for "keyboard shortcuts," and on the right side of the top line are icons for:

*  title only view,
*  magazine view,
*  cards view
*  full article view
* mark as read,
* change layout and filtering
*  refresh
*  jump to next (the next category when in a category list)

2)  Here is the "Cards View:"



3)  Here is the "Magazine View:"


4)  Here is the "Titles View:"


5)  If I switch to read a specific blog, by clicking on the blog name in the blog list in the left-hand column), the latest post for that blog shows up:


The information at the top of the right-hand column changes to include the blog title, an "Edit" button and a "Remove" button.

6)  I was curious about the "keyboard shortcuts" so I clicked on it, and a popup window lists the keyboard shortcuts available to the user:


Those shortcuts have at least some of the keystrokes I'm used to on Google Reader (I've only used the J and K keys...I guess I missed the others!).

One thing that I don't like about Feedly (and maybe it's there and I haven't found it yet) is that it doesn't list previously read items on the "All" list in the right-hand column.  I often read past the end of the "unread" list on Google Reader (mainly because I've read some on the iPhone app but haven't been able to add them to a Best Of post), and I would like that capability.  I cannot remember everything these days...

The URL for this post is:

copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver



4 comments:

Unknown said...

Randy,

If you click on the little gear (like in Google+), you will get more viewing options. Uncheck the "unread only" box and it should show you all posts. It also gives you the option of having a "timeline view" as well (though I haven't figured out the difference between that and the magazine view).

Another drawback that Feedly has (and I hope they implement it soon) is that you cannot search within your feeds. I miss that about Reader.

dustbunny8 said...

Be aware that there is a problem with some blog's excepting Feedly? I tried to add a blog(not genealogy) and it would not do it. I contacted support and they sent me a letter stating the following"This is a throttling issue: the site is blocking feedly cloud requests because they don't know the cloud.feedly.com domain yet.
Our team is hard at work trying to get in touch with them to get whitelisted and allow users to have access to their content once again."
I really don't understand this and wonder if others are having these problems?

Diane O. said...

Randy,

I switched as soon as it was announced that GR was going away.

I like that they have an app for my iPhone/iPad. I also like the save for latter tab.

Yvonne Demoskoff said...

Hi, Randy.
Feedly gives me a blank page when I try to access its homepage (http://cloud.feedly.com).

I am using IE8 version 8.0.7601.17514 on my Windows 7 Pro machine. I've also tried it on my husband's IE9 on his Windows 7 Pro, but the same problem.

Any ideas why this is happening?