The Old Reader and Some Beethoven: An RSS Feed Symphony

I haven’t listened to Beethoven since my college studying days. I haven’t studied since…well, college. But here I am on a Sunday afternoon, cranking Beethoven, Chopin, Bach, and Mozart via Spotify. You see, I’m studying again.

Starting this week I’ll have a Social Media Internship at a web-based, small business document and resource start-up company here by the beach in Santa Monica. I’ve been diving head first into social platforms that I only had heard of casually through conversations or used ages ago and never thought twice about again. Today, my main focus is getting caught up on social media analysis websites and blogs. As I started perusing sites such as kimgarst.com, RazorSocial, CoppyBlogger, and the like…I decided that I needed to blow the dust off my old RSS feed reader that I used in 2010 to follow celebrity blogs at my 9-5 desk job. Good ol’ Google Reader RSS. I remember when I began integrating it during the ‘invite only’ and underwhelming rollout of Google+ in 2011. Regardless, it was a perfectly acceptable tool for following my preferred content.

As a side note, for my mom who’s reading now, an RSS is a Rich Site Summary that basically groups all of the blogs I subscribe to together so that I can receive automatic content updates in one cohesive format. Mom, it’s the virtual conglomeration of the NY Times, Chicago Tribune, LA Times, and Columbus Dispatch (Go Bucks!) as one Sunday paper in the drive way…except I don’t have to put on a jacket, boots, and scarf to retrieve it.

An old co-worker and I used Google Reader back in 2010 to mostly recite movie gossip to one another intermittently throughout the day between minimal work and excessive bathroom breaks. So as I began collecting social media sites to follow I remembered….Google Reader was discontinued in 2013! Oh me oh my…what to do? Dun Dun Dun Dunnn! …a little dramatic effect courtesy of Beethoven’s “Symphony #5”

After asking around about favorite RSS feed readers, I dropped anchor at TheOldReader.com. I was told it best resembled the old Google Reader RSS. After using it for two days now, I am quite content. The Old Reader is simple and user friendly. I like simplicity when my goal is to focus on the content instead of the tool. The free account offers up to 100 subscriptions, suggests trending posts, and allows for easy sharing of your preferred content to Facebook and Twitter.

For $25.00 / year, I can upgrade to a premium account status, allowing me to have a subscription maximum of 500 sites, faster upload speeds, and Instapaper/Readability integration, among a few other perks. However, for the every day article peruser like me, the free RSS account works just fine.

I’m excited to use The Old Reader as my RSS platform and to begin finding new and interesting articles to assist me in this new career path. So when you see me checking my Twitter feed during dinner I can now say, “Hey it’s my job! Click, send, smile….my Ode to Joy!