Google Reader vs Blog Lovin’
I’ve seen a lot of talk about moving your Google Reader subscriptions over to Blog Lovin in order to see the blogs in their native setting. Blog Lovin allows you to import your feeds into their site and then sift through them while visiting each blog directly. You can see the screenshot below. At the bottom is a small bar which allows you to view the next blog post, like the post, or exit out of Blog Lovin’ and stay directly on the blog itself.
So…cool right? Why am I even giving Google Reader a chance? Here’s why. I showed Adam this Blog Lovin’ amazingness and he says, “You know, you can do that in Google Reader, right?” Um no I did not. After he explains it, he shows me that in your Google Reader setting you can drag a “Next” button onto your browser and while you’re in Google Reader you click that “Next” button (it will be where your bookmark bar is) and it cycles through your subscriptions! See image below.
So why did I include these screenshots? Seems kind of pointless until I realized that when you use Blog Lovin, the URL at the top is still a Blog Lovin URL. Essentially, that blog is not getting direct traffic. When using Google Reader, it’s literally shifting to and from the actual blogs directly. Now, I don’t have proof or any research but it seems that for the blog owner, the Google Reader approach would be more beneficial when it comes to traffic and stats.
But that’s just me. I’ve decided to stick with Google Reader. I have so much starred, archived, organized there, and it’s just one click away from my Gmail. While using this feature of Google Reader, I’m more likely to comment on blog posts and “pin” my favorite images through Pinterest. Some things I didn’t like about Blog Lovin were the fact that when I imported my subscriptions the amount of unread posts weren’t accurate, it didn’t list the blogs without recent content, and it seemed to load each post slower than GR.
What are your thoughts? How do you manage your blog subscriptions?
*UPDATE: Now that Google Reader is no more, I use Feedly! But Bloglovin was awesome and contacted me and let me know that your blog does get a hit/traffic when viewing the blog via Bloglovin. So yay!
A Consideration
A weekly email where I share things that made me stop and consider. Never sponsored, no affiliate links.
Comments (27)
-
I still don’t understand why we don’t have even better options than this. I want an RSS reading experience that I love. Thanks for the “next” revelation–I didn’t know that, although it doesn’t help me because I actually read my subscriptions pretty selectively, saving some for some days, reading some every day…..
-
@Courtnee- I feel the same way!
@Rachael- I agree with you. What other options would you like to see in an RSS reading experience?
-
-
@Katie- all you do is going into Google Reader > Settings > Reader Settings > Goodies, then under “Put Reader in a Bookmark,” you literally drag the “Next” button up to where you have your bookmarks bar on your browser. Let me know if you get it to work!
-
Josephine
I would love to know how to transfer all the blogs I follow from Bloglovin’ to Googlereader. Bloglovin’ has messed everything up for me with their recent changes. Does anyone know how to do this?
-
Hi Josephine! I’ll let you know if I find anything about moving to Google Reader. If I do- I’ll respond to your comment again AND update the post. Does anyone else have any incite?
-
-
Allison–thanks for this post, I was wondering if BlogLovin’ would be more beneficial to me as a blogger, but it looks like it is not. I am addicted to my Reader but always looking for something better.
Josephine–As for importing into Google Reader, under the settings button, you can go to the Import/Export tab and import subscriptions from other readers through that feature. Good luck!
-
Whitney- I’m glad you enjoyed the post! I try my best as a blogger to visit the blogs directly and comment as much as I can and I didn’t feel that Blog Lovin’ helped that any more than Google Reader.
Thanks for responding to Josephine!!
-
-
I tried Bloglovin………HATED IT!
The “new” posts were NEVER accurate. 1 day I’d have 700 new, the next day it might be 3500 and then the next, it might be 2 new……and I had not read ANY OF THEM!I am going back to google!
-
That’s how I felt, Robin! Definitely wasn’t accurate. So frustrating when it says you have 1,000+ unread posts!
-
-
Think I’m gonna move everything to Google Reader. I’m split between the two now. BTW, I love the pic of you flipping your hair! lol
-
-
I’ve switched from GR to bloglovin when I finally bought an iPhone. I didn’t find any free app for reader that worked properly. The Bloglovin’ app isn’t great, but is less annoying that the one I had for Reader. Does anyone knows a good app for reader?
-
-
so – I was *just* trying to sort this out myself. I gave up on Bloglovin a long time ago but I was never a big fan of Google Reader. I just found feedly and it’s pretty awesome. i use Chrome and it keeps a mini feedly tab open for reading and each blog I visit has a tiny tool in the bottom right corner to share/tweet/FB/add to my blog collection. it seems to be super accurate AND there’s an app for my iphone which works seamlessly.
you make a valid point about stats, Allison – not sure how feedly handles stats
-
-
-
-
Krystle
I use the Byline app to get Reader on my iPhone and iPad – does the job!
-
-
Brenna
Hello! I just stumbled onto your website doing some searching for other feed readers after I found out the very sad news about Google Reader expiring after July 1.
Just wondering if you know what you’ll end up using after Google Reader no longer works?-
I am SO sad about GR :(
I’m pretty sure I’ll be moving to Feedly. I still haven’t really looked into it. And I supposed I’ll deny it’s really happening until July!!
-
-
My comment is similar to Brenna’s. I just started a blog a few months ago. Now what? Do I have to move the blog or just my reading list?
-
It sounds like you’ll most likely be able to export your subscription list and import it into a new reader. I think I’ll be moving to Feedly. What are your thoughts?
-
-
Read on for another password manager and our
choice. Counted few manufacturers make the complete range of water filters in India available in all the regions via direct sales and at retail outlets.
According to senior officials, the basic product has already been developed by GIC and is now awaiting
the approval of IRDA. -
Phil Alward
It’s really too early to say. They pretyy much said that last year and it was a bust. Now this year has been so neurotic while last January felt like May. So who knows.
courtnee scott
My heart belongs to Google… Reader included