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More than 500,000 Google Reader users have joined Feedly in the past 48 hours
- pan69 14y agoAdd to Chrome: - Access your data on all websites - Access your tabs and browsing activity Yeah, right. I'm an idiot?
- OGinparadise 14y agoYeah, right. I'm an idiot? Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt... :)
- pan69 14y agoBut that doesn't apply to you, right?
- mschuster91 14y agoJust about every other extension does that, too, I've noticed. Is this maybe the finest granularity Chrome's API offers?
- nolliesnom 14y agoAlso, why does it need to be a Chrome extension? What happened to non-extension web sites?
- Nux 14y agoOptimised for "Internet Explorer 4+"!
- martinced 14y agoIs this something that all Chrome extensions ask for or only some? I tried to install AdBlock Plus in Chromium and it asked the same question...
- icelancer 14y agoHow is AdBlock supposed to block ads on webpages in your tabs without access to them?
- Ensorceled 14y agoMagic? Some of these complaints are idiotic. "Why does my RSS reader need access to the webpage to add the RSS feed for that webpage?"
- tempestn 14y agoWhat if you just want to use it as a reader and are happy with pasting in feed urls manually?
- Too 14y agoThis is the problem with the permission systems on most newer platforms. It's either all or nothing; Run or don't run. If i find a good app for android where only a minimal feature requires some privacy intruding permission i can't install it at all even though i never want to use that feature. Same on Windows, either it's admin or it's not, there is no middle ground. Most installers ask for full super mega admin permission just to get write permisson in %programfiles%, what if i don't even want to install it there. I think .NET and Java programs can be run until they encounter permission requirements and then prompt but i have rarely seen this feature used. Obviously it's a usability tradeoff and the programmers of the app would also have to handle the permission rejection gracefully while running but i don't think that's too much to ask for.
- tempestn 14y agoNot sure about .NET, but you have to prompt at load for Java. Your app can continue to run in a degraded manner if permissions are not granted however. Anyway, this is why it's a shame Feedly doesn't offer a non-extension version. One would hope it's something they have planned. Offer the extension for those who want the additional features and are ok with the permissions, and the web app for the rest (and for the convenience of access anywhere, cross-platform).
- dm2 14y agoAlso no ability to use the RSS reader website without installing an app or extension? What?? No thanks Feedly, I'll pass.
- vonuebelgarten 14y agoThis answer the question about how do they make money. I think there is a lot of buyers for the information they grab with this. I stick with newsbeuter. No web-based readers for me.
- hamax 14y agoI'm not associated with feedly or their user but I'm guessing they need those permissions for getting the rss feed url from the web page and for detecting the current active tab. Probably to display an appropriate icon. It does sound scary but it's really hard to do anything without those permissions.
- Ramp_ 14y agoIndeed, it is to do with the granularity of the Chrome extension permissions. More info & discussion can be found at the item posted a few days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5381944 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5381944
- MatthewPhillips 14y agoAlso it adds a button to the bottom right of every web page. I immediately uninstalled when I learned this. Newsblur has no such shenanigans and is developed by a HNer.
- icelancer 14y agoWas very excited to try Newsblur. It's not free, for those wondering, and free accounts are temporarily suspended. Oh well. Time to move on.
- guptaneil 14y agoWhat's wrong with paying for a service that you find useful?
- dmxt 14y agoI don't have any method of paying online, well, there is, but it takes too much of effort doing the paperwork in bank that it's not even worth it. I don't live in first world country.
- mkr-hn 14y agoInstall a LAMP/WAMP thing (+ python) and run NewsBlur locally. You could even make a local edition where people can pay you in person.
- frio 14y agoNothing, but currently there's no way to try it before buying, which is a problem.
- jcoder 14y agoIt is free---it's OSS. But you can pay him to host your feeds for you.
- abhinavg 14y agoNewsblur is fully open source. You can host it yourself if you do not want to pay for it.
- donniezazen 14y agoCan anyone say that these extensions make a clear distinction between access and store? As long as they don't store any information about pages I have visited or text I have entered in a browser, I don't see much trouble.
- r4vik 14y agorepack without the most heinous permissions: http://ge.tt/3os1cIb/v/0?c http://ge.tt/3os1cIb/v/0?c it's quite good - shame they ask for those.
- Heliosmaster 14y agoIf you use just the shortcut in the browser, nothing is needed.
- mkr-hn 14y agoFeedly won't load without the extension.
- diminoten 14y agoAnd why in high holy hell do you give a shit?
- niggler 14y agoCongratulations on being well-positioned and ready to handle the onslaught when Google announced that they were axing Reader. You clearly were "where the puck will be" :)
- Jleagle 14y agoDon't understand why more people are not just sticking with Google Reader until it closes instead of switching now.
- itafroma 14y agoIf you rely on Google Reader for your daily workflow, figuring out which service or application is a suitable alternative after Reader closes is too late. Unless you're hoping for a 180 from Google, which there's no evidence to support right now, waiting just cuts the amount of time you can use to test the alternatives while still having access to Google Reader as a fallback.
- guptaneil 14y agoOne good reason is that the RSS reader landscape is going to change drastically in the coming months as other developers jump to fill the hole left by Reader. The app you end up using may not even exist yet. Sure, the cost of switching is low, but it still seems like a waste of time to start searching now when so much will change in the next 3 months.
- itafroma 14y agoIf you're sure the app you'll end up using hasn't been made public yet and the current alternatives are not going to do it for you, that's a risk you can take, definitely: but it's still a heck of a risk if Reader is integral to what you do online. At any rate, I don't think it's that hard to understand why thousands of people are already making contingency plans this far out.
- bjxrn 14y agoTrying things out might teach you the sort of things you do and don't like in a reader. If all you've ever used is Google Reader then you might discover new preferences by being exposed to other solutions. You still have to switch soon, so you might as well put in a little extra time. At least, that's my thinking on it right now.
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- nsns 14y agoI believe most users are currently in a "searching" phase, and have joined more than one alternative, so this sudden growth might be misleadding. That said, for now, Feedly is my favorite alternative, so good luck.
- TillE 14y ago"Misleading" in the sense that only a fraction of those may become loyal Feedly users, sure. But it seems like a pretty good estimate of the number of active and aggrieved Google Reader users out there.
- Confusion 14y agoA good lower limit. Not everyone has the time or inclination to take immediate action. I'm a heavy user of Google Reader and I haven't yet taken an action. I probably won't for at least a few weeks. What is baffling is that Google can't or won't monetize a product with that many users.
- robgough 14y agoAgreed. I'm a big Google Reader user, and will inevitably be trying out Feedly, but just haven't had the chance yet. Judging by the amount of people I've spoken too over the last few days, there's a whole lot more than 500,000 of us. I'd love to see how many people Google considers not worth their time. I'd happily pay for Reader.
- mixedbit 14y agoIf 500k users switched in 48h, 3 months before the shut down, how many users the Reader actually has? It seems it must be a lot.
- jemka 14y agoDo you think all of the 500k were actual Google Reader users? It's possible a portion are jumping on the hivemind's bandwagon. Not discrediting the cause, just saying that some people like to join causes for the sake of joining causes.
- brown9-2 14y agoExactly - how do they know which product their users were using before signing up for Feedly?
- julius 14y agoThey let you import your google reader data.
- mixedbit 14y agoBut what cause do you join by signing up for Feedly? I understand that even people that did not use Google Reader may be upset that the company drops a service that is based on an open standard, but I can't see why such people would react by subscribing to some other RSS reader.
- BHSPitMonkey 14y agoI think the "Google Reader users" claim is because they know how many new users imported their data from Google Reader.
- hamax 14y agoMaybe a great number of them are people like me who haven't actively used google reader in years but are willing to give rss readers another go after reading about them non stop for the last few days. Just a speculation.
- astar 14y agoIf this many Reader users converted in so short of time, then it is amazing that Google could't find a way to monetize the service or at least keep it revenue-neutral, or even have it be a useful loss-leader
- bencevans 14y agoSounds like a http://highscalability.com/ http://highscalability.com/ post to me!
- georgeoliver 14y agoI looked at 10 or 15 readers and am using Feedly at the moment. I tweaked it a little to get a minimal and compact layout. http://wp.me/aseR-cs http://wp.me/aseR-cs I added an extension [1] to open articles in a background tab (their keyboard shortcut foregrounds the new tab). I made a simple new style in Stylish [2] to streamline the UI: #feedlyTitleBar {display:none !important;} #feedlyPageHeader {display:none !important;} #systemBar {display:none !important;} So far this works for me. [1] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/feedly-will-open-entry-in/ebjjigiapfaenlmhdidmmcaekjhclehj https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/feedly-will-open-e... [2] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stylish/fjnbnpbmkenffdnngjfgmeleoegfcffe?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stylish/fjnbnpbmke...
- Kopion 14y agoSo much relative effort and baggage compared to how Reader works. Reader's death continues to sadden me.
- georgeoliver 14y agoActually I had to make the same changes to Reader.
- k3n 14y agoFor background tabs, Reader doesn't require an extension. All links should be normal <a> tags, just middle-click (or right-click > new tab) and it opens behind Reader.
- georgeoliver 14y agoIt has been a long time since I checked, but it didn't work for the keyboard shortcut ('v' I think in Reader?)
- mkr-hn 14y agoFYI: There's 1400+ votes on a feature request for getting rid of the extension https://feedly.uservoice.com/forums/192636-suggestions/suggestions/3744181-make-fully-web-service-because-some-corporation-c https://feedly.uservoice.com/forums/192636-suggestions/sugge... Vote for it if you want to hammer the point in. The extension is probably for that irritating button that's on all pages until you disable it (preferences at the bottom of the folder list).
- Apocryphon 14y ago"You venture to call Ferdinand a wise ruler," he said to his courtiers—"he who has impoverished his own country and enriched mine!"
- fdb 14y agoIt scares me that they add 500,000 users and I don't understand how they make money. At this point I'd like to either pay for a service or use something self-hosted to make sure I don't have to go through a painful transition again.
- Rickasaurus 14y agoThey must be selling your info. Just look at the Chrome access: "Access your data on all websites" and "Access your tabs and browsing activity"
- nacs 14y agoThose permission requests are because of an annoying floating "Share widget" that the Feedly extension adds (semi transparent widget near bottom right of every page you go to that you can click to share the page on FB and such). Fortunately the 'feature' can be disabled.
- dangrossman 14y agoAre you really just going to defame a company based on nothing but the granularity of Chrome's extension permissions? That's not just irresponsible but downright malicious. Any extension that interacts with webpages needs that permission. Even if it's just to add a button. Before you go accusing them of selling information about your web browsing, you could at least check if they collect that information in the first place. Which is easy, since a network inspector is built-in to Chrome, and Chrome extensions are just ZIP files you can open up to read the code inside. Hint: They don't. The plugin inserts a share image into the page, and the image is embedded in the plugin, not hosted on Feedly's server. It creates no network requests at all, so there's no involuntary information passing happening.
- maratd 14y ago> or use something self-hosted Take a look at: http://www.feedafever.com http://www.feedafever.com Just installed it. Works just like Google Reader, with a few bonus features. I don't have to worry about being shut down anymore.
- daigoba66 14y agoI wish it worked in IE. By that I mean I wish it worked without a browser extension.
- angusgr 14y agoAs far as I can tell Feedly has no OPML export feature, so if it eventually goes away it's a dead end for users. (Please prove me wrong, but I searched the site and also installed the extension to try and find one.)
- mkr-hn 14y agoIt's a frontend for Google Reader right now. I think most are assuming the option will appear when they switch over to their own API after Reader goes dark. However, you should vote on the suggestion just in case: https://feedly.uservoice.com/forums/192636-suggestions/suggestions/3744603-google-reader-an-option-to-export-ompl-data-we-ne https://feedly.uservoice.com/forums/192636-suggestions/sugge...
- angusgr 14y agoAh, right, thank you. I hadn't realised they weren't importing, just accessing. I'm not a feedly user so I don't mind but thanks for the link to the suggestion, good to see it's being considered.
- Cordiapxq 14y agoOf course! This seems to be the most recommended substitute, my question is why? Is it really that much better than the rest?
- mkr-hn 14y agoNewsBlur was a kludge when it worked and let you add more than 12 feeds. And Feedly was prepared for Google announcing the Reader shutdown. NewsBlur could be a strong contender for the next exodus when Reader finally goes dark, but it has a long way to go. The rest are a bit weird, mobile-only, or don't know what they're going to do when the Reader API they depend on shuts down. Personally, I like Feedly's UX. It's like an evolution of Reader. It's much smoother, and has a magazine view for feeds where it makes sense.
- lucian1900 14y agoIt's the most similar to Google Reader (except perhaps for theoldreader), easiest import (no import at all yet, just sync) and best published transition plans.
- ialja 14y agoSo, nobody was using Google Reader anyway, declining numbers and so on, eh?
- icebraining 14y agoIt's a question of scale. When a company has services with more than 400 million users, a stagnant half a million is not that great.
- Samuel_Michon 14y agoI suspect the number of active GR users is closer to 50 million, seeing as 24 million people are subscribed to the CNN feed alone. (I'm subscribed to hundreds of feeds, but CNN isn't one of them. I also think most users outside of the US won't be subscribed to the CNN feed.) http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2013/03/google-reader-data-points.html http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2013/03/google-reader-data-...
- Kylekramer 14y agoIf it was anywhere near 50 million active users, Google Reader would not have been shut down. Even if it was 25 million actives it would still be kicking. Plain and simple. Subscribing to CNN seems like the behavior of beginner RSS readers who abandon the concept. Seems like a good idea, but a general, high volume feed with more noise than signal for the average person doesn't really make sense for Google Reader user. I'd be shocked if the number of those actively reading the CNN feed was anywhere above 5 million. For comparison, CNN on Twitter only has 7.7 million followers. Do you honestly believe 3x more people are reading CNN's RSS feed than their Twitter feed?
- julianz 14y agoYep. RSS is a better way to read news. If I subscribe to an RSS feed then I get to pick through the whole thing at the point where I feel like reading it. Twitter just blasts past so fast it's gone in minutes, I miss maybe 90% of my Twitter stream (conservative estimate, it's probably more). I realise you can go and look at an individual Twitter feed but it takes several clicks to see the whole thing and it's not as fast as RSS.
- vladsanchez 14y agoBeen using Feedly over a year now! Most recommended!!! You won't need/want any other tool.
- white_devil 14y agoJust when we were discussing the complete lack of online privacy, here's a free app that just happily added new servers and 10x bandwith to accommodate 500 000 more users. Sweet. Nevermind how they can afford all that capacity. Maybe they're a charity, funded by Bill & Melinda?
- tempestn 14y agoI'm sure they will come out with a premium version or some such eventually. If you were Feedly would you really turn down the opportunity provided here just because you can't immediately monetize the new users?
- kzrdude 14y agoI suppose it has been discussed and put to rest but.. I used the linux Liferea in 2006, and I still use it in 2013. I can hit update and read the new articles offline.. Privacy status: It runs on my computer.
- stickhandle 14y agoI tried feedly, the old reader, and newsblur. The old reader is nice, but no mobile :-(. Newsblur is a mess ... i want a reader that gets out of my way. The only thing it really needs to do is let me organize things my way. Newsblur has that intelligence nonsense ... i already curated and organized. I don't need more. Sorry - i don't want to share with others either. It's for me. The interface has so much going on. I can't understand why HNers like it so much. Feedly is the (im)perfect choice so far. I wish it had more organizational settings, especially global. The "today" page is interesting, but i wish i could exclude some feeds that publish way more than others and just fill up the screen (sites like Ars Technica where i prefer to see their list of articles in rss rather than on their site). I expect LOTS more option to appear in the coming months, but right now, for a web based solution, Feedly is head and shoulders the best (imo). Their android app is really nice - takes a bit of getting the handle on, but after a few minutes, it seems like the absolute right way to do things (nevermind the great integration with Pocket). Cheers Feedly -- looking forward to an expected innovation run by you folks and hopefully a pay version.
- stevewilhelm 14y agoTo add Chrome, but provide data access on all websites and access to table and browsing activity? No way.
- hydralist 14y agomarketers dream right there. retention strategy a/b 101 week
- rdl 14y agoFeedly seems to be doing the best out of the alternatives for performance in light of the deluge of Reader refugees (Newsblur, WTF?) -- but it is still very "sparse" in layout. I haven't figured out a way to get a simple listing of articles per feed like Reader does, which means it won't work for me. I want something even more dense than Reader, or at least no worse. TheOldReader is close, but I would prefer something with iOS clients as well. TT-RSS is looking like the best option (even though it has no apps), but I don't really want to have to host a PHP app. Philosophically I love Feedly (YC company, startup, etc.), but I don't think they want to make some dense power user tool like a direct Reader replacement.
- mintplant 14y agoSee: http://blog.feedly.com/2013/03/14/tips-for-google-reader-users-migrating-to-feedly/ http://blog.feedly.com/2013/03/14/tips-for-google-reader-use... (linked from the post) Tip #1: "A more condensed view"
- aeth 14y agoA condensed list of titles... which opens to reveal a ridiculous waste of vertical space, including two rows for social media and, ironically, a massive title which can take up 2-3 lines.
- rdl 14y agoI mainly meant the iOS app, and the per-story view -- there is a lot of whitespace. The iOS app doesn't seem to actually accept the more condensed view as a global default, either, and only sometimes accepts it when I set it within a given rss feed. I also dislike the Chrome extension (vs. pure web-only). OTOH, it is really pretty, so I'm thinking of using it for recreational use anyway. It's just not an ideal research replacement for google reader yet.
- msg 14y agoThe android app leaves a bit to be desired here as well. Not as customizable as the web view.
- znowi 14y agoIn contrast to a lot of discontent about the Reader's demise, think about the opportunities it brings for this market? I've seen at least 10 alternatives popping up these last 2 days. Google leaving jump-started the competition in a seemingly stagnant field.
- downandout 14y agoOne man's trash is another man's treasure.
- malloreon 14y agoIf I had a feed reading service, I'd consider making a blog post just like this, hoping to make it self-fulfilling.
- rhapsodyv 14y agoMan, how I hate blogs that I can't find a link to the main site!!! And it appears to be the rule!! :-/
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- ashleyblackmore 14y agoHey I hear you can download software to your own computer and use it without having a dependency on a cloud service. Craziness!
- edo 14y agoFeedly must be having a party now. Kudos to them.
- pbreit 14y agoSurprisingly, Feedly seems like the best replacement at this point. But it's bizarre that Feedly requires plugin/extension for browsers and an app for iOS. Obviously the winning solution is a web site and iOS-optimized web pages.
- dendory 14y agoI'm happy for them but I just don't like their interface. Anyone knows if Feeddler has plans to keep going? I like that app.
- fakeer 14y agoI see a lot of users just going to every service mentioned by that blog or that blogger. Without any research. As '@nsns' says it's the searching phase. There are services that are famous as of now, very famous. Not because those are best out there(or even better than average) but because they played good on social scene the day Google read out Reader's death sentence. Feedly, having used them, is certainly not a great service. It's a client that is everywhere. It's a good one(must be) I personally never liked it. But at least they are handling the load better than others. NewsBlur looks like a slow clunky web app. There are few others like FeedHQ.org and 1kpl.us but none of them are still there. Looks like Feedly is just hoarding users with a promise to be sth that at least they are not going to be - the 'holy grail' of RSS sync service - which is the void GR actually created. A clean and fast web app/server where our feeds can reside in the cloud. And all the blog posts out there are talked about just one thing - these clients; and users listened. That is how they have these many numbers.
- skybrian 14y agoThey are currently #1 in trending apps on the Chrome store: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/trending?utm_source=chrome-ntp-icon https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/trending?utm_sou... And #4 in Android trending apps: https://play.google.com/store/apps/collection/movers_shakers?hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/collection/movers_shakers...
- ForFreedom 14y agoJust how do I register on Feedly and read the feeds via the browser not mobile device?
- stef25 14y agoIs there any way of turning off the "Featured" content at the top? This is like Facebook pushing content that I never asked for. Here it's right at the top too. Other than looks good.
- mkr-hn 14y agoSwitch to a different view with the little gear icon at the top. I don't know about other views, but the Titles view doesn't have the featured articles thing. That said, Featured only shows posts from your own subscriptions within the folder, not from some shared collection or advertiser pushing.
- overloaded 14y agoI would love to see how Feedly is, but it's completely broken in Safari. It asks for approval via Google OAuth on every page load, and once it has approval it displays a login page, again. There seem to be a number of issues surrounding this. Some people point to OAuth being the problem. Some people point to the Safari extension. One way or another, it's broken, and there's absolutely nothing on their Twitter, blog, Uservoice, or Get Satisfaction even indicates they're aware of the cloud of problems surrounding Safari usage.
- jason_slack 14y agoDoes Feedly for IOS have a feed limit? I have I think 160 feeds and it seems to cut me off at 90 I think. My feeds just aren't there. I dont find any settings that help with this either.
- billN 14y agoFeedly is a good alternative, but not great. Those guys should prioritise a bit more functionality over designs (and remove all those CSS animations!!!)