Google Reader and RSS feeds in general are becoming things of the past. Still, most of us have a list of blogs we want to follow, but we don’t want to manually check all of them each day. If you’re anything like me, I don’t want to check another website to find new blog posts either (though I do want that as an option for the hours I’m sitting and nursing Tulip!).
As much as I hate sounding like a commercial, Blog Lovin’ has really filled the void between wanting to read a list of blogs, and not wanting to take extra steps to do so. Here’s why I suggest using Blog Lovin’ over the other guys.
Daily digest
This is my absolute favorite! Maybe I’m a lazy internet surfer, but I don’t want to go to yet another website each day to distract me from the multitude of pages that already distract me. I get a list in my email once a day of all the new posts for that day and I can skim it from there, deciding what I want to view.
Facebook hides posts
Many of us, myself included, will follow a blog on Facebook hoping to see the updates. Then, you rarely ever see anything from them, and then the blog is near forgotten about. Facebook decides what to show you and what to hide. A lot of personal bloggers (aka the ones who don’t pay for Facebook promotions) get lost in the mix and are rarely ever seen again.
Beautiful interface
Not all readers include pictures from the blog post, but it’s something I want to see. Looking at a link list isn’t that fun, and it’s easy to skip over a post you really want to read! The homepage looks slick, modern, and simple.
Click to blog page
One thing I don’t like about some other blog reader pages is that when I click on the title, it brings me to a large excerpt. Then, if I want to continue reading, I have to click again on “read more” to go to the blog’s full website. I’m sorry, but I’m a minimalist clicker. Why should I have to click multiple times to see a post that shows up on one page when I go to the blog directly. Plus, this way I can comment or share right from the blog, instead of using third party tools.
Mobile/website/email
I can view my blog list on my mobile device, on the Blog Lovin‘ website, or in the daily digest email. This solves all sorts of boredom scenarios (so I can stop playing Candy Crash saga and do something halfway not-embarrassing with my time), or busy day scenarios.
Let me just say, I’m not receiving any compensation for suggesting Blog Lovin’. Simply, I’ve been looking for a few months for a blog reader to replace Google Reader and I didn’t look into Blog Lovin’ because it seemed like a fad. Well, I guess there’s a reason why some things become a fad – they really are superior in design.
Great information. I do need to find a replacement for Google Reader. The countdown is upon us.
Give it a try, I think you’ll like it! I tried quite a few before I settled on Blog Lovin.