14 DAY TRIAL // As the closedown of Google Reader is only one week away, more alternatives are coming to light. After several well-known names have already hit the market, more are coming in the hopes of winning over some of the Reader users.
One of them is Reader.is, an interesting app that is quite similar to the Google service.
The developers say that their product is simple, open and reliable and it seems that they are right at least on some points.
The app’s clean interface makes the reading experience quite pleasurable and easy to handle. Furthermore, the platform is open to developers who can build their own apps with the help of the API.
As for reliability, the developers promise not to shut down the RSS reader, claiming that they have a sustainable business model.
The service lets you add RSS feeds manually or upload an XML file. Thus, if you have a list of RSS feeds that you normally viewed on Google Reader, for example, you can export them and load the file in Reader.is.
The import feature takes a few minutes, depending on how many feeds you have.
Once this operation is completed, all the feeds can be viewed on the app’s main page and you can either view the articles of each individual publication or view them all in chronological order.
The articles are displayed by name and publisher while the complete text can be viewed by rolling over the box of the news.
A slightly annoying thing is the fact that when you click on any of the links, they open in the same window and not a separate tab, which would make things easier.
It’s also possible to share any of the articles through multiple methods. In order to view any sharing types you must add them from a special interface. You can choose between Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, desktop email, Pocket, Xing, Yahoo! Mail, LinkedIn, Google+ and many more.
Depending on which RSS feeds you like more, you can have them update at a certain time interval by simply adjusting the settings. You may also rank each feed with a five-star system.
There are also several apps already available on the platform, which can be added quite easily. For instance, “Clipped” provides a summary of an article, while “Track Keywords” allows you to filter down your articles by important words.
Something that must be noted with this RSS reader is the fact that it is a paid service. This means that for some actions available to perform, you must pay a few dollars. One of these actions is uploading the XML file.
This credits-system is easy to understand and figure out and the current balance can always be viewed in the upper part of the page.
There's also a free tire available and some other improvements will also be applied soon.
The bottom line is that Reader.is is a nice app that has some nice features. It is certainly worth to give it a try and see if the service fits your needs.