Having been a computer and electronics (component level) geek for years, I'm always amazed at what becomes in vogue, the latest thing. Sometimes they make perfect sense to me, and at other times I know I must be missing something... Case-in-point, Google Reader and the announcement that it will be going away in July. That news seems to have created a large outcry and a scramble to find a cloud based alternative. There was news that Yahoo acquired Summly, a mobile news agitator and articles for best alternatives to Google reader.
The reason I will not miss Google Reader is not that I don't use RSS feeds, I love them. I have been using feeds for over a decade and they seem to be even more at home in the current information overload world we live. I tried iGoogle and the widgets along with Google Reader in years past, but I was left wanting. The screen layout, the look and feel, the ability to customize - all fell short of what I had been using. What I am, and have been, using is a highly customizable, multiple window, drag and drop cloud portal called... My Yahoo. Believe it or not, IMHO Yahoo has one of the best portal and RSS aggregators in the business - multiple columns, widgets, drag and drop arrangements, multiple tabs, tons of look and feel adjustments - this is a sleeping giant of the personal portal plays.
This Gadget has dynamic content via a mouse hover:
The reason I will not miss Google Reader is not that I don't use RSS feeds, I love them. I have been using feeds for over a decade and they seem to be even more at home in the current information overload world we live. I tried iGoogle and the widgets along with Google Reader in years past, but I was left wanting. The screen layout, the look and feel, the ability to customize - all fell short of what I had been using. What I am, and have been, using is a highly customizable, multiple window, drag and drop cloud portal called... My Yahoo. Believe it or not, IMHO Yahoo has one of the best portal and RSS aggregators in the business - multiple columns, widgets, drag and drop arrangements, multiple tabs, tons of look and feel adjustments - this is a sleeping giant of the personal portal plays.
A small example of a possible My Yahoo front page, with RSS feeds:
Notice the multiple windows with size adjusted images, all of which are drag and drop
There are some useful Gadgets to make this portal even more useful, like the bookmarks Gadget:
There is a Personal Assistant Gadget:
This Gadget has dynamic content via a mouse hover:
And you can have multiple pages of content:
Make a new tab, click it and have another full page of customized content:
I know many are going to miss Google Reader, but I'm not one of them. I know there are some additional hooks that Google Reader has, for example syncing of content API's to thick clients. But if it is in the cloud, and all the content is there too - I'm happy to access it from any device and forgo an additional client and redundant download.
Yahoo, I know you have had some tough times but your portal is A+ and why your are keeping it a secret is beyond me. If you are a Google Reader user or would like to explore a highly customizable portal, give My Yahoo a visit.