By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Google Reader is a news and RSS feed aggregator that launched in 2005.  Google is shutting down reader this July. Here are some alternatives.

The beauty of RSS ( Really Simple Syndication) is that users can subscribe to various feeds from websites, news sources and even social media feeds. These are all refreshed in your RSS reader soon after new content is made available. For users who need to digest vast amounts of data on various topics, using an RSS service like Google Reader saves them the time and effort to collect news from each individual source.

Google is known for its various projects, some of which are developed and others which are invariably shut down to refocus resources elsewhere.  Since like many of Google’s services, Reader is free, users can’t really complain if and when Google decides to pull the plug on the service.

There’s also the question about what will happen to all the third party Google Reader apps on various mobile devices.

I have been using Google Reader as my de facto news aggregator since there are various desktop and mobile applications that work with it and all they require is my username and password. All that is going to change.

The good news is that while Google Reader may cease, there will no doubt be a resurgence of third party RSS reader services that will fill the void. While many might be from smaller companies, we can expect possibly better integration and more.

Feedly – Feedly looks like a very viable alternative to Google Reader. It has various apps available on different platforms, Not only can Feedly do everything Google Reader could do, the layout and design is modern and elegant, clearly focused on a smooth delivery of feeds.

Netvibes – Netvibes is an older and more experienced RSS reader that als has Social Media Monitoring, Analytics and Alerts built in. Available in various versions starting with a free personal subscription, Netvibes generates a dashboard on the fly and can turn any browser window into a full-scale news and trend tracking console.

NewsBlur – Users who really miss Google Reader can check out NewsBlur which is based on many of the same open source principles that Google Reader is built on. The strength of NewsBlur is that for $24 subscription a year, users can get an unlimited stream of stories from unlimited websites. Users can also ‘train’ NewsBlur to push up important topics and hide the noise which makes the service more precise as time goes by.

These are three viable alternatives to Google Reader which bites the dust on July 1, 2013.