The Old Reader is a

web-based A web application (or web app) is application software that is accessed using a web browser. Web applications are delivered on the World Wide Web to users with an active network connection. History In earlier computing models like client-serve ...

news aggregator In computing, a news aggregator, also termed a feed aggregator, feed reader, news reader, RSS reader or simply an aggregator, is client software or a web application that aggregates syndicated web content such as online newspapers, blogs, po ...

that delivers website, blog, and other Internet content to a web-based inbox. The service sprung up when

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

removed social features from

Google Reader Google Reader was an RSS/Atom feed aggregator operated by Google. It was created in early 2005 by Google engineer Chris Wetherell and launched on October 7, 2005, through Google Labs. Google Reader grew in popularity to support a number of progr ...

; the site supports social media sharing, including the ability to "like" content, and find friends via social media networks.

History

The Old Reader was started as a hobby project by Olena Bulygina, Dmitry Krasnoukhov, and Anton Tolchanov. In March 2013, it only had 10,000 users, but started gaining popularity quickly after

announced that month that it would retire

. By the end of April 2013, the project already had 200,000 users and Anton had to quit, leaving just Elena and Dmitry. In August 2013, a month after Google Reader shut down, two remaining co-founders were struggling to keep the website running in the face of a large influx of new users. On July 29, The Old Reader team stated they had 420,000 registered users, with as many as 60,000 registrations in a single day. The team announced their intention to close the public version of the reader, leaving only a private website for a limited number of people. However, a few days later, another announcement stated that the website will remain public, with support from an unnamed "corporate entity in the United States". In November 2013, the team mentioned that the new owner was Levee Labs. The new team invested in hardware upgrade and changed the hosting provider, implemented a number of new features, including long-awaited browser bookmarklet. The founders of the site had publicly rejected ad-based tactics to support the service; the new team shares their vision, and in order to finance operations for the otherwise free application introduced a Premium service in February 2014.

Features

The Old Reader is free for up to 100 feeds and offers a Premium version with full-text search and up to 500 subscriptions and 1 year of post storage. Former users of Google Reader or other

RSS RSS ( RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many di ...

readers can import feeds via OPML export. A browser bookmarklet lets users send web pages directly to The Old Reader account. The service is integrated with Facebook or Google to help users find friends also using the site. There is also support for

Readability Readability is the ease with which a reader can understand a written text. In natural language, the readability of text depends on its content (the complexity of its vocabulary and syntax) and its presentation (such as typographic aspects t ...

Instapaper Instapaper is a social bookmarking service that allows web content to be saved so it can be "read later" on a different device, such as an e-reader, smartphone, or tablet. The service was founded in 2008 by Marco Arment. In April 2013, Arment ...

, and Spritz, a service to help read content faster.

Mobile applications

The Old Reader has made its mobile API freely available to facilitate support for mobile applications. The service is supported by a number of mobile applications for all major platforms, including ''Reeder'' and ''Feeddler'' for

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

, ''Greader'' for

Android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...

(no longer available as of 2018), ''Old Reader'' for

Windows Phone Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design lan ...

and ''ThOR'' for

Symbian Symbian is a discontinued mobile operating system (OS) and computing platform designed for smartphones. It was originally developed as a proprietary software OS for personal digital assistants in 1998 by the Symbian Ltd. consortium. Symbian ...

Reception

The Old Reader's reception was generally positive. '' PC Magazine'' praised its simple design and social aspects, but noted it lacked some of the features of its competitors.

Dave Winer Dave Winer (born May 2, 1955, in Queens, New York City) is an American software developer, entrepreneur, and writer who resides in New York City. Winer is noted for his contributions to outliners, scripting, content management, and web servic ...

, one of the creators of RSS and other technology pundits have praised The Old Reader team's commitment to open web standards and delivering ad-free services, although as of 17 March 2015 the service includes "sponsored posts" inline with aggregated content.

References

External links