Ben Popper, at The Verge¹:

Some Reader partisans may have given up on RSS after the shutdown, but the majority seem to have migrated to other platforms. In the weeks following the announcement, Feedly saw 3 million Google Reader refugees sign up and Newsblur says it now has 25 times the paid subscriptions it did in March.

Interesting. It looks like Google inadvertently revived the very market Reader killed when it debuted.

I’m still relying on Feedly right now, and they’re the paid option I’m most likely to go with whenever they begin offering a premium tier, but the options are admittedly plentiful.

And there’s no denying that the death of Reader, in retrospect, was probably the best thing to happen to RSS since, well, the birth of RSS.

If you like Feedly but prefer Reader’s white space and width, grab this handy script. Chrome users like me should install Tampermonkey first.

From the Feedly blog:

We have been working on a project called Normandy which is a feedly clone of the Google Reader API – running on Google App Engine. When Google Reader shuts down, feedly will seamlessly transition to the Normandy back end. So if you are a Google Reader user and using feedly, you are covered: the transition will be seamless.

Feedly is my top contender for a Reader replacement right now: multi-platform, ready to clone my Reader feeds, and prepared to essentially take over much of Reader’s core subscribe-and-sync functionality when Google pulls the plug.

Also, I can’t help but assume that they’re calling it Normandy because there are tens of thousands of Google Reader users suddenly storming their shores.

Anti-disclosure: This post raves about the new Feedly. They didn’t pay me, I don’t know them, and all I get out of writing the below is the satisfaction of pointing fellow Android users to one of the best-designed apps in the Play Store.

I love both Pulse and Flipboard and I can’t think of many ways I would improve them. They’re elegant and functional, which are really important descriptors in my mind when it comes to app design. But they feel best to me on a tablet. Both use interface paradigms (buzz word!) that just feel (again, to me) a little overwrought on most mobile phone displays.

I uninstalled them this morning after trying out the new update to Feedly. Feedly has always integrated Google Reader, but the update includes a swipe-from-left menu letting you easily access your Reader folders. Those of you who aren’t Google Reader users can find sources in their slick new topic menu. Instapaper (and Pocket) integration, syncing read items to Reader, a dark theme, and some new font choices round out what I consider the best newsreader available on Android smartphones today.

Try the new Feedly people, and thank me later.