Feedly adds 500K new users on Google's move to kill Reader
New users flock to the RSS reader app in the two days after Google announced it would retire its own RSS service.
Feedly is reaping the benefits of Google's decision to ax Reader.
The RSS app picked up more than 500,000 new users in the two days after the Web giant announced last week that it would retire its RSS app, Feedly said in a recent blog post. Google's decision to sunset the service on July 1 disappointed many on the Internet, leading to the creation of a handful of online petitions at Change.org that begged Google to reconsider.
"We have been working on a project called Normandy, which is a Feedly clone of the Google Reader API - running on Google App Engine," the company wrote in its blog. "When Google Reader shuts down, Feedly will seamlessly transition to the Normandy back end. So if you are a Google Reader user and using Feedly, you are covered: the transition will be seamless."
Feedly was the top RSS replacement suggestion of Nick Bradbury, the creator of the popular Windows desktop RSS reader FeedDemon, which also announced on Wednesday that its service was shutting down after 10 years.
"Personally, I like Feedly both on the desktop (well, browser) and on mobile, although the magazine-style format takes some getting used to if you're coming from a river-of-news reader like FeedDemon," he wrote to CNET in an e-mail.
Featuring an image-heavy layout, the browser-based RSS reader has Android and iOS apps for mobile syncing, and works in Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. While Feedly appears to be the popular replacement, there are several mobile and Web-based Reader alternatives, including FeedReader, RSSOwl, GreatNews, and Reeder.