Google Reader users are probably all aware by now that the popular news feed aggregator is being put to sleep permanently by Google (for shame!!) after today. 

If you’re just hearing about this, that’s right, after today, July 1, Google Reader will no longer exist, which means that if you rely on it (as I do heavily) to capture your daily news from the dozens (or, in my case, hundreds) of sites and blogs you subscribe to, you’ll need to export your subscriptions list out of Reader so that you can import them into another similar tool (a few exist, and others are coming). 

In light of this news, I thought it would be a good idea to let our readers who use Google Reader primarily, to access our content, how else you can do just that.

Our RSS feed remains the same, so nothing’s changed there: http://fb.indiewire.com/indiewire/shadowandact.

As you’d expect, you can find articles on a number of alternatives to Reader, via a simple Google search. I’ve tried 3 of the most suggested, and, unfortunately, none of them matches the ease of use and robustness of Reader, which works so well for me, and I became so attached to it, that I never prepped for the day when Google would kill it – because I never thought they would.

Feedly is the most recommended, but I don’t care for it at all. I found it clunky and unnecessarily cluttered to use. Maybe I’m just impatient.

Thankfully Digg and AOL have been hard at work on replacements, and, of the two, I’d say that Digg is closest to Reader, but still has a long way to go before I can crown it the ultimate Reader replacement. 

Facebook has also been rumored to be working on a site subscription aggregator. No word on when it’s expected to debut.

And there are a few others. But, again, none that, as far I my experience with them tells me, matches Google’s simple and efficient Reader.

Of course, if you’re not planning on transferring your subscriptions to another news aggregator, you can always find us on Facebook, and Twitter. 

If you opt for Facebook, you should note that, thanks to Facebook’s efforts to increase its ad revenue, you won’t see every single one of our posts when it’s shared on Facebook. HOWEVER, one way to fight this is to select the option that will ensure you receive an alert under your list of notifications, whenever S&A shares an item. To do that, hover your mouse over the *Liked* button, and select “Get Notifications.”

And there’s always subscribing via email, in the box in the right-hand column. Just enter your email address, and you’ll be guaranteed to receive once-per-day updates on everything posted every 24 hours.