My Thoughts On Feedly

     I only started using Google Reader in January of 2012; I was in my first year in the Faculty of Education when I was introduced to it in one of our program's ICT courses. At first, I hadn't really recognized the value of the service as I really only used my computer for social media, email, and school research (no seriously, that's ALL I used it for!). After beginning my blogging adventure, however, I was quickly addicted to the site as it was so easy to organize and keep track of the 200+ sites I began following on a regular basis. As I evolved as a blogger I began using Google Reader more and more until... they announced that the service was being discontinued!

     Now even though I feel very comfortable online, I was really annoyed by this announcement because I had spent a significant amount of time finding all of the feeds that I wanted, organizing them into specific subjects, and keeping on top of new information as it came out. The LAST thing that I wanted to do was have to start all over from scratch (which was what I thought was inevitable). I saw through my PLN that many people had already made the switch to a variety of different tools:
- Digg Reader
- The Old Reader
- NewsBlur
- Pulse
- Feedly
- Just to name a few...

     To be honest, I didn't do a lot of research about the various features or upgrades offered by the various sites. In fact, I only switched about four days before the cutoff date of July 1st! I simply picked the one that was the most visually appealing to me and decided to try it out. I figured that this was something I spent a good deal of time looking at so I should pick one that I found easy to navigate and read. This option was Feedly. I am happy to say that I LOVE the choice that I made!

     Now, I can only speak from one side as I haven't spent time using other services (and I've only been using it for about a week) but I can share with you my List of What I LOVE About Feedly.

1 ) I can use my Google login information
     - No new account to create, maintain and remember
2 ) ALL of my feeds, including the categories I created, transferred over
     automatically
     - I didn't have to create a data file to import into the service
     - I didn't have to spend time importing feeds individually and/or
       re-organizing into subject-specific categories
     - This was a big perk for me, transferring over literally took less than 3 minutes!
3 ) The layout/design is similar to Google reader in function
    - Very easy to get used to
4 ) The accompanying iPhone app is super easy to use and formatted very well
     for the phone
    - I HATED using Google Reader on my iPhone, it was so hard to use
     * Although as I write this I notice that the app is currently down due to over
        capacity, here's hoping it is back up soon!

What service did you switch over to?

Leave your thoughts on the new service below!