Google has just announced that Google Reader, a most-loved RSS feed aggregator, will shut down come July 1, 2013. As is to be expected, many people were outraged by this decision. If you’re one of the Google Reader users, and you’re also working with WordPress, let me present you with an alternative.
An Alternative to Google Reader
Being the main blogger behind this site, I need to know what’s happening all over the WordPress world, and the best way to do that is to skim the feeds of all the other major WordPress websites.
Coupled of course with a healthy Twitter (X) activity level. It is for this purpose that I built WP RSS Aggregator, a plugin that fetches feeds from other websites and can present them in a tidy list on a page or post on your site.
Why I Built It
I’ve built this plugin to scratch my own itch, and I’m glad to say I haven’t used any other news reader since.
I don’t need to leave my site to check other news, it’s all there for a quick reference whenever I need it.
This plugin might not have all the features of standalone feed aggregator sites, but I urge you to try it out because it does do the essential thing, keep you updated with the news you’re interested in.
The imported feeds are stored as custom post types so you can display them in any way you want, by building templates in the same way as you would build them for posts, pages, or other custom post types.
And of course, if you have any feedback on how to improve the plugin, you’re very welcome to let me know.
6 Responses
Great idea, look forward to testing it out.
Yeah I used Google Reader for years, and just about 8 months ago swtiched over to the app Reeder, which of course is for Mac. I love the UI so much better. I did freak out a bit when I heard as Reeder pulls in from Google Reader. But I was reassured by Reeder that this will not affect the app, heavy sigh of relief. It also has a great app for the iPad and iPhone as well.
Also, I bet we will see some new apps coming out. There probably have been some others have been setting on, and well, this will be their opportunity.
It can be a great opportunity to take over Google Readers users.
Can it import the zip file generated by takeout?
It contains json and an xml.
Not yet but I’m planning on adding this feature.
That would be a darned handy feature 🙂 I quite like the idea of taking control of my own RSS reader.
Indeed 🙂 Funny that I’ve already spent hundreds of hours working on what started out as a plugin I planned to write in a weekend. It’s been exciting stuff though. I’m soon off for a 2 week break on some tropical beaches in Thailand, then it’s back to work on this and more features!