- My first attempt was to move everything to a static HTML page of links, but that, of course, didn't work very well. Or at least it wasn't satisfying. The thought of having to visit and parse all those sites manually usually meant that I would visit none of them, and left me feeling that I was missing out on some good content.
- I decided to re-import most of my RSS feeds (there was some weeding) into RSSOwl, a cross-platform, feature-rich RSS reader that is clearly grounded in old-school newsreader UX. For some people, that would be a horror. For me, it's nostalgia, so I decided to give it a try.
- Only being able to access my RSS feeds from my work laptop has not been a problem, and note that I very rarely bring my laptop out of my office! Note that the majority of my RSS feeds are linked to work, so the need or even desire to get at them from other places isn't really there.
- With Google Reader, I would usually start with a title scan and star items that looking interesting, then review the starred items to see what to read or promote to Instapaper for later reading. This two-step processing led to an eventual backlog of thousands of starred items... so aside from whatever information I gleaned and retained from a title, I was not getting a lot of our my RSS feeds anyway!
- RSSOwl has the same ability to 'star' an item, but I don't use it. Items are usually read in RSSOwl or promoted to Instapaper. I only open RSSOwl once a day (unless I forget), and after several weeks of use, my backlog of starred items to process is exactly zero.
If you are someone who's moved on from Google Reader, I'd be interested in hearing about your experiences as well. Do feel free to drop a comment below.
