Nextgen Reader and replacing Google

As it seems half of the people I follow on Twitter I was shocked to hear about the impending closure of Google Reader. It’s the tool I use to be good in my career, to stay up to date with changes in technology and exposing myself to new ideas. Weirdly I thought a tool that better informed Google about my reading habits would be quite useful to them.

On Windows Phone I use the fantastic client app Nextgen Reader, to me this app is a great example of following the Metro design principles when not having a strong existing brand to follow. Even if you’re not a big blog reader I’d recommend checking it out for nothing other than seeing its design in action. They’ve also got a Windows 8 app that I occasionally use when on a tablet (on the desktop I used the web site).

While hunting for alternatives I found out that they’ve announced plans about plans to deal with the services shutting down and will continue with either a third party service or stand-alone (personally I think stand alone would be great). If you’re looking at something to replace Google Reader in the Windows ecosystem long term I’d recommend checking out the Nextgen series of apps.