14 DAY TRIAL // The Old Reader, a tool similar to Google Reader, is following the same path as the renowned service and will be closing down next month for all new users.
The RSS reader that looked and worked very similarly to the Google product has decided to close down.
More specifically, it will be closing its public site. This will affect all users that switched to the service after news broke that Google was closing down, as they will no longer be able to use The Old Reader come the middle of August.
It seems that the developers have decided to take this step after becoming overwhelmed with the extra amount of work involved in keeping the site online following an influx of new readers over the past couple of months.
One proof for this is last week’s situation when the reader crashed and stayed offline for several days.
“In March things became ‘nightmare,’ but we kept working hard and got things done. First, we were out of evenings, then out of weekends and holidays, and then The Old Reader was the only thing left besides our jobs. Last week difficulty level was changed to ‘hell’ in every possible aspect we could imagine, we have been sleep deprived for 10 days and this impacts us way too much,” the site’s two developers wrote in a blog post.
The site will be kept running for a few users, such as friends, backers, and those who were already using it before March 13 when Google announced it was closing down Reader.
Otherwise, you have two weeks left to export your OPML file which can then be imported in most RSS readers, such as Feedly, Digg, MultiPLX, and many others.
The developers apologized by saying they’d rather provide an awesome experience for 10,000 users than a disappointing one for 420,000.