Google Reader is Being Retired

If you’ve signed into your Google RSS Reader in the last week, you were greeted with a box that said Google Reader will be shut down on July 1st.

As part of a”Spring cleaning” announcement, listed are changes Google is making, one is in regards to the widely used Google Reader:

“We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites. While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader. Users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with Google Takeout over the course of the next four months.”

The announcement left many angry, upset, with more questions than answers and scrambling for solutions.

So first and foremost, to be clear:

This ONLY applies to readers who use the Google Reader.

User of the Google Reader:  

It’s going to be ok! There’s comfort in familiarity and it’s always painful when things change and I know you’re thinking of all the blogs you’ve collected up over time and added to your Google Reader.
You don’t want to lose your blog collection and you don’t have too…
Google Takeout  is your escape.
You just need to export your RSS Feeds from the Google reader and add them to a New Reader. You have a lot of options out there and instead of re-writing the information others have compiled, I suggest visiting these links:

• Google Reader is Shutting Down; Here are the best alternatives
• Google Reader Alternatives

Once you’ve exported your RSS feeds and imported them into a new reader, you’re all set and you haven’t lost a single RSS feed/blog.
Look for your new RSS feed home now. Don’t wait until the last minute and risk losing your information.

As a Blogger who publishes an RSS Feed:

The first concern anyone who writes a blog should ask in regards to this change is… How will it affect my readership?

I believe everyone will lose a small percentage of readers based on this change, namely the people who rarely check their Google Reader or those who ignore the impending change and don’t export their feeds from their Google Reader to a new one in time.
BUT…with some proactive measures, we can preserve the majority of our readers that see our content via the Google Reader by letting them know what to do.

Let’s help our readers out! They read our blogs via the Google RSS Reader, so what better way to let them know about the changes than by writing a post in our blogs alerting them to the change and how they can fix it. The helpful post you write will pop up in their Google reader and then it’s up to them to take action.
Feel free to copy and paste any of the above information I’ve wrote in a blog post of your own.  I got this copy from Rebecca over at The Outdoor Blogger Network.  Readership is hard earned and here at Snug Harbor Bay, I don’t want any of you to lose a single reader!  And I don't want to lose any of you!

If you've found a new alternative that is working for you and that you like, please leave me the name of it in the comments section.  I'm looking at options and haven't found anything I really like yet.