Bye Bye, Google Reader! (And Spam Comments)

Did anyone else have a slight panic attack when you found out that Google Reader is going to the kick the bucket on July 1st?    

I have certain blogs I read regularly and Google Reader was a convenient way for me to follow along.  I like how it recognizes posts that I haven't read and also puts them in chronological order - it's hard to miss a post this way.

Since it will soon be a goner, I had to figure out what other "reader" would be good for me.  After reading some other blogs, I've learned that these were some good options:

1)  Bloglovin:   It was easy to transfer the blogs I follow.  I also like the format and how everything is listed by most recent.  The only thing I don't like is when I want to Pin something from the blog I'm on, it won't allow me to and it won't allow me to click on the post's title (which normally would take you directly to the blog's specific post).  I have to go back to the main Bloglovin page (where it shows the list of all the unread posts) and click on the blogs's name, then find the specific post on their blog.  If anyone knows of an easier way, please let me know.  I'm still learning the ins & outs of Bloglovin.  Other than that, I'm liking Bloglovin so far and it's my main reader now.

2)  Feedly:   I've heard it's easy to transfer the blogs, but it wanted me to install a Safari and/or Firefox extender.  Right now, I don't have any room on my ol' Macbook - it's lasted me about 7 years, but I already decided that this year is the year I get a new one.  So, until then, I don't want to put any excess files on it.  From what I can tell on their home page, it looks like a nice format, but since I didn't sign up, I couldn't play around with it.  Maybe once I get my new Macbook this year, I'll sign up and take a looksey.

3)  Linky Followers:  So, far I'm finding that it's not user friendly at all.  It looks like the site was created 10 years ago and never changed.  I was not even able to figure out how to view blogs on there.  Am I just not figuring it out correctly?  Was I just too tired of checking out the different readers that my brain was all fuzzy?  I still set up an account so that I could add a button to my blog page - I thought that might be easier for any regular Linky users to follow my blog.  One of these days, I'll poke around on the site more to see if I was just missing something.

4)  My Yahoo:  Since I have an old Yahoo account, I decided to try this.  I had to manually input the blogs I follow - I stopped at 5 or 6 since I got tired of it.  There was no way I was going to manually transfer all those blogs I follow.  Also, I noticed that it wasn't listing the posts in order of when they were posted (most recent) - it was listing alphabetically, which made it hard for me to determine which posts I hadn't read yet (it also doesn't indicate "unread" posts.  

Also, I have seen some bloggers concerns over spam comments.  I used to get them occasionally, but in the last couple of weeks, I've noticed that I have been getting a TON of them and it's really annoying.  So, I may be turning on the word verification soon to see if that will help stop them.  I know it's an inconvenience, but I think it will help - hopefully it will be just temporary. 

I hope that you all continue to follow along in your reader of choice.  There are several options on the right-hand side bar of my blog page so you can follow along - whether it's via a reader, via email subscription, or Twitter.  

Have a nice weekend!

Originally posted by Adventures in DIY