If you use Outlook.com for email, the last few days may have been a frustrating time for you.

Upset that Google is shutting down Google Reader this summer? You’re not alone. The death of RSS, on numerous occasions, has been greatly exaggerated. The truth is that millions of people still use feed readers on a daily basis. They’re a convenient way to sift through the mountain of near-real-time content that gets published every day on the web.
So where do you turn now that Google Reader is being put out to pasture? You could use a desktop RSS reader, but chances are that if you were using Google Reader you’d probably prefer to stick with a web app instead.
Some better-known alternatives are Bloglines and Netvibes. Both are solid options, but Bloglines is a better choice if you’re after something that works a lot like Google Reader does. Netvibes is more of a personal start page, while Bloglines more closely resembles a traditional feed reader. It’s also got loads of personalization options and it’s totally free — Netvibes charges for some functionality.
There’s also The Old Reader which claims to be just like the old Google Reader, only better. It’s getting hammered right now, so you’ll have to take their word for it, but TOR has been a popular alternative for quite some time.

If you don’t mind switching up to something that places more emphasis on aesthetics than Google Reader, have a look at NewsBlur, Taptu, or Pulse. Newsblur is laid out a lot like Google Reader, but “feels” more like a desktop app. The others are all presented in more of a thumbnailed, curated digital magazine format — not a bad thing, just not the workmanlike experience Reader provides.

You may find that all of these services are struggling to keep up with the demand for new accounts, and that’s no surprise. Google might think that Reader was underused, but there are still millions of avid news readers on the web that are out there looking for a new services that works well and isn’t going to be shut down any time soon.

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As many of you might have noticed

As many of you might have noticed, Google announced that it would be sending its RSS reader gentle into that good night. With the amount of outrage and shock that you most likely saw spread across your favorite blogs and social networks, the shuttering of Google Reader probably seemed like a crazy move from a company that would be losing a popular service with an extremely dedicate following. The thing is, though, it’s not like Google doesn’t have access to Reader’s numbers. So, when Google says Reader’s population wasn’t enough to justify the service’s existence, the amount of outrage you saw on the internet about it is most likely from a very vocal minority. In response, Brian Shih, a former product manager for Google Reader, took to Quora to explain why Google had to shut down the service.

You might have found that most people assume that Reader simply didn’t generate enough revenue to cover operating costs. Shih explains that Reader never directly made money, and recalls that Reader was faced with moving its staff onto other projects more than once, in order to build OpenSocial, Buzz, and Google+. All of those projects were social-based, and Shih believes Google always wanted to use the Reader team on other social projects because the Reader team understood the socialscape. So, it’s not like Google didn’t value the people behind Reader.

reader_android_appGoogle decided to shut down Reader in 2010, and then when Google+ hit the market and the sharing features of Reader were diminished, Shih suspects that is when the Reader population began to plummet. So, with Reader’s sharing features taking a backseat to Google+, and with Google aiming for a more consolidated, focused effort in recent times, the company decided it was time to focus more, and kill off a product that wasn’t being used enough.

The reason why you’re seeing seemingly universal outrage is because you read blogs, and bloggers use Google Reader much more than the more average internet user does.

Shih left Google in 2011, so what he speaks isn’t — as he puts it — gospel. However, he recently held a position that provided him with knowledge of how Google operates, and how the company felt about Reader. So, he’s most likely more informed than your favorite bloggers using all those sad face emoticons filling up your Twitter feed.

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With Google Reader shutting down this July

With Google Reader shutting down this July, you might be looking for another way to stay on top of your feed subscriptions. Why not set up a Raspberry Pi to do the not-so-heavy lifting instead of importing your feeds into yet another web-based service? After all, you never know when anyone (or everyone) is going to pull the pin on their aggregators — especially since RSS is supposed to be dead already anyway.

Just follow Conor O’Neill’s lead and install Tiny Tiny RSS on your Raspberry Pi. It’s an open-source app that has been around for ages, and its developers provide a tarball that makes setup on the Pi (or any Linux-powered system) a simple task. You’ll need a basic LAMP stack running, too, because Tiny Tiny RSS isn’t a desktop app, it’s a web app that you can self-host.

That makes it a pretty ideal Google Reader replacement if you’ve got a decent internet connection and are comfortable setting up port forwarding on your router. Once everything’s configured, you’ll be able to access your feeds anywhere you have a browser available — just like you can with Reader. And since you’re in control, you don’t have to worry about a startup going under or someone going on a spring cleaning purgefest. As long as your ISP bill is up-to-date, you’ll always be able to read your feeds in the comfort of Tiny Tiny RSS.

Don’t have a Raspberry Pi? Loads of other devices will do the trick. SheevaPlug devices should work nicely, too, and so will those nifty little HDMI stick PCs — as long as you own one that can handle an ARM-friendly Linux distro.

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