Bye-bye, Google Reader :(

Come tomorrow, I will be celebrating Canada Day -- but mourning the loss of my constant companion for the past 5+ years, my Google Reader.

I first heard about blog readers shortly after I started blogging... for awhile, Pamela Jeanne had a link to her blog reader on her blog, & I found a lot of great blogs through there. Then I started hearing about Google Reader, & I think I remember Mel singing its praises. I was getting tired of going down my list of bookmarks, clicking over to see if there was anything new to read, so I decided I'd try it. and very soon, I was hooked. It's been my constant companion, both at home & (sshh!!) at work ever since then. When I have a few spare minutes, when I first log on in the morning or when I'm eating lunch at my desk, I will click over to Google Reader & see what's new.

So I freaked out when I heard a few months ago that Google, in its infinite wisdom, would be discontinuing the Google Reader as of July 1st. I downloaded my subscriptions -- but then the hunt began to find an alternative. I looked into several.  Feedly sounded promising, and many bloggers were singing its praises -- but it only works on smartphones & with Firefox, neither of which I use. :p  I tried The Old Reader, which I'd also heard good things about, but I couldn't for the life of me transfer over my Google Reader subscriptions.

I wound up with Bloglovin. It's not perfect, but it will do. (I guess it will HAVE to do. ) 

What I like about it:

• It works!! lol  I was able to transfer over my Google Reader subscriptions successfully.
• It hides blogs that don't have anything new to read from the list. (You can opt to show them if you like. It's just neater & easier to see what there is to read.)

What I dislike/will miss about Google Reader:

• On Google Reader, most blogs can be read in their entirety through the Reader -- you don't have to click over to read the rest of the post. On Bloglovin, you do.
• It seems slower than Google Reader. I've noticed that I will have read a post on Google Reader that has yet to show up on Bloglovin.
• Blogloving transferred over my individual blog subscriptions, but not the subject folders I had them sorted into. So I had to recategorize all my subscriptions. I'm talking over 500 blogs (albeit not all of them active)(not all ALI-related, either). :p

Farewell, Google Reader. It's been nice knowing you. Thanks for all the good reading.