14 DAY TRIAL // Google didn't win a lot of fans when it announced it was shutting down Reader, but the company knew what it was getting itself into.
All the badgering, the petitions, and the upset users didn't change Google's mind, and nothing would have.
So the only thing to do is look for alternatives. Millions of Google Reader users have, and many stumbled upon Feedly as the service closest to Reader, though still lacking in some respects.
Ever since Google made the announcement, Feedly actually improved tremendously, thanks to all the additional attention.
While Feedly is much better than it was just a couple of months ago, there's still plenty of work to do for it to even be on par with Reader.
Thankfully, Feedly took the directly opposite approach to Google and actually asked users what they wanted more in the app.
And the fans spoke, the number one most requested "feature" is speed. Users want Feedly to be faster, and the company has hired people to work on both the app and the infrastructure to speed things up.
The second most requested feature was search. Search was actually available in Feedly initially.
But it's a resource-intensive feature so Feedly first hid it, though it was still available if you knew the URL, but then it disabled it altogether. You can still find it at "feedly.com/home#search/search_term" though it doesn't work.
Another thing Feedly is working on, the third most requested change, is a pure web Feedly. Currently, you have to install a browser extension for Feedly to work. That's annoying, especially if you want to use the service on someone else's computer, and there's no real reason for it.
Users also requested official apps for Windows Phone, Feedly supports Android and iOS for now, and Windows 8. Another requested change was better group sharing.
Finally, high on the list of priorities are some bugs that need to be fixed. All of these are coming, and they can't come soon enough, as Google Reader shuts down at the end of this month.