So, the end is nigh for Google Reader. I went through the familiar stages of grief… For awhile I was in denial. Even after they removed the Reader link from Gmail, I would still try to get to it. I would search “Google reader” and go to my reader and just pretend nothing was wrong…
But they kept reminding me, “HEY, WE ARE LEAVING YOU!”
Then, I moved on to anger.
“WHY, GOOGLE, WHY!? WHY ARE YOU TAKING MY READER FROM ME!?”
A deep, deep depression sunk in while I was exploring my other reading options… I fell so far behind in my blog reading that I just didn’t know what to do with myself.
Then, acceptance, I started looking into my other options… it seemed that there were two main winners of this battle: Feedly & Bloglovin. Honestly, I need a lot of help here, guys. And I know that a few of you do, too.
So, in what little free time I have, I have been kinda flipping between the two… and I think Feedly might be winning me over. I will compare them both for you now, so that I can help you all as well.
Again, since I haven’t really spent the time to learn either one fully, please pardon my ignorance, and let me know if I am missing something that is available that I think is not 🙂 Let’s help each other through this hard time in our lives.
The Home Screen
So, first things first, the “Home” screen. When I log into “Feedly.com” or “Bloglovin.com,” here is what I see:
Feedly
Nothing fancy going on here, just a list of all the blogs with unread items, and how many posts remain unread. To the left we have my navigation bar where I can select which blog I want to read.
Bloglovin
This is the standard feed for Bloglovin. Now, from what I can tell, if I want to actually read something, I Have to open it. I will still be in a “Bloglovin” pane, but reading that actual blog (vs actually directing to a separate page like Feedly would).
Reading
Bloglovin
For Bloglovin, we have the view above, which is standard “Small Picture” view, followed by a blurb or we have “large picture” view, which is a large pictures followed by a blurb.
As far as actually reading the blog post, you have to click the post to open it, which will open it in a new window but with a Bloglovin border. I do like that it allows you to share to Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest right from this toolbar.
Feedly
This is where Feedly really shines. Here are our options for viewing:
Option 1: Words-Only
Option 2: I don’t know what it’s actually called, we’ll call it “small picture” since it’s pretty much the equivalent of Bloglovin’s “small pic” view.
Option 3: Magazine view (I think that’s what it’s called)
Option 4 (my favorite): Full article view:
This allows me to read this article directly from Feedly, which I love. If it’s something I don’t deem important, I can scroll through at my leisure and Feedly will mark it as read as I scroll. Of course, if I don’t want to mark it as read, I can always click “Mark as Unread” to remind myself that I have something to read.
Although this view does lack the ability to comment directly on the post, you can click that wonderful “Preview” link in the top-right, and it open a mini-window for your reading, viewing, and commenting pleasure.
Gorgeous right?
Organization
Both Feedly & Bloglovin allow you to organize your blogs into “categories”
I personally enjoy Feedly’s “drag and drop” organization feature
I also enjoy that Feedly allows me to “Tag” posts, which I don’t think we can do with Bloglovin…
Can I?
When you tag a post, your tags show up under your categories on the left-hand toolbar. You can then scroll through all the posts within that “tag”… This is one of the features I miss most from “The Reader That Shall Not Be Named”
Kinda cool, right?
Just sayin…
Features
Bloglovin
Pros:
- I like that Bloglovin helps me explore other blogs that I might not otherwise have known about
Cons:
- I have to click a post to mark it as read, or to open it to actually read the post… every… single.. time.
- Not a lot of viewing layout options
- No tagging 🙁
- I know it’s just personal preference, but I’m used to my GR toolbar being on the left, so I like that layout better (Yes, I accept that I’m a crazy person)
Feedly
Pros:
- I can read blog posts directly on my Feedly page
- I have way more viewing options available
- Feedly has the option to automatically mark posts as read by scrolling through them
- I have the option to pin an image directly from my Feedly feed (I love to PIN ALL THE THINGS)
- I also have the option to tag, e-mail, share and “save for later”, which puts it into another category marked “Saved for Later” for review at your leisure
- Oh, and Feedly has keyboard shortucuts!
Cons:
- I miss the opportunity to explore more blogs, which I probably wouldn’t even really miss if I didn’t know it was available on BL
- BL allows you to track your followers… which is also not available (as far as I know) on Feedly
- It’s not entirely intuitive
(sobs)
i can’t. WHYYYYYYYYY, Google Reader. Like just this morning i’m wondering if i should switch to feedly but then again, i’m sitting here with the bloglovin’ logo in the corner of my little screen and i’m like “…” .
maybe if i just keep google reader in my menu bar it will secretly stay. don’t go, GR.
Isn’t it THE MOST STRESSFUL THING EVER!? WHY IS IT SO HARD!?
also, all the cute animals of the world just called: they said they missed their normal appearance via GIF on Thursday Things. just saying. 🙂
here’s another bloglovin versus feedly fact: feedly seems to have almost 8,000 more twitter followers than bloglovin. IS THAT A SIGN I PICKED THE WRONG ONE?!?!?!
*SOBS AGAIN*
There are no wrong ones, just different opinions…
but maybe. 😉
Coming to you via my Feedly… feed. I made the move a few months ago after resigning myself to the fact that Google Reader was leaving me for good. I was lost, at my wits end, but how could I survive without my Reader!!??
Feedly has stepped in to fill the gap nicely. I like the look and feel of the reader, there is also an App which syncs up your reading list for catching up on the go. It will also recommend content by area of interest when you select “add content”. You can also pin straight from the photo. The only down side is I haven’t discovered a “next” button to pass by a post that doesn’t interest me. Apart from that I love it and would whole heartedly recommend Feedly.
Breaking up is hard to do, but sometimes it is better to admit that it is over and move on.
Spoken like a mature adult 😉
The more I play with Feedly, the more I like it. Thanks for the tip on finding other blog recommendations!
I decided on Feedly over Bloglovin purely because I can read the posts without actually going to a new window and thus my work cannot see how much blog reading I do at work 🙂 Also, feedly just seems prettier and easy to use. Although today I had a near catastrophe because Feedly asked me for some reason if I wanted to sync with my google reader (even though I’ve been using feedly for a month or so now) and it proceeded to reset everything I had, like make all the posts I already read new again, and I’m not sure if it messed with blogs I added since I moved over…it was a stressful morning 🙁 I think that hopefully though, life will still go on…we’ll see.
P.S. thanks for letting me know about the tagging! I didn’t know that existed. very cool.
I think it’s just doing that to everyone, something about “syncing to the Feedly cloud” or something…. did it to me, too, but it’s been fine since so…… fingers crossed (while I knock on wood and wish on a star) 😉
I’m finally ready to move on. Thank you for helping me through this difficult time:)
I’m happy to have been of service – which option did you choose? 🙂