AOL Reader and Feedly: the New Substitutes

With Google retiring Google Reader after July 1, existing and new alternatives are becoming stronger than ever, all of them wishing to occupy the spot Google is leaving empty. AOL has already announced its offer: AOL Reader, promising “All your favourite websites, in one place.” Another suitable alternative is Feedly, which has been functioning for a long time now and has recovered its strength given Google Reader’s current situation. Feedly is offering its improved version, called Feedly Cloud, which, unlike its previous plug-in form for Chrome, Safari and Firefox, will allow users to run the software in any modern web browser, including Internet Explorer and Opera.

AOL Reader in Private Beta

AOL is planning to officially announce its alternative to Google Reader soon, and the landing page for the service is already public, for everyone to see. AOL Reader is still operating in private beta, though, so information about the service is still mostly based on speculations.
The CSS styles of the website tell us that AOL Reader will offer Web optimization especially designed for touch devices. It also appears to support integration with other platforms such as Google+, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. The features the website is currently offering include the possibility for personalizing the page layout and importing and exporting capabilities to make switching from Google Reader extra simple. The website also allows any developer to create applications for AOL Reader.

The Feedly Alternative

Feedly has been functioning since 2008 and is currently available as a plug-in for Google Chrome, Safari and Firefox. However, Feedly Cloud will be available for most web browsers and will also have an application programming interface compatible with RSS feeds from outside apps and websites.
Feedly is particularly promoting an easy transference of all the information from Google Reader to Feedly with only one click. These characteristics combined have caused an increase in the number of Feedly users. A couple of days after Google announced the closure of Google Reader services, Feedly had already gained 500,000 new users, which have grown to a total number of more than 3 million since then.