ownCloud - Surviving the RSS Apocalypse

Google recently axed Google Reader, a rather good news aggregator that could be read via the web and synchronised with mobile devices. Nifty and the main way that I got my news. In the months leading up to the axing, there was a mad scramble by the Google Reader using public to find an alternative service provider. They are out there but I felt they replicated the problem - putting your news feed into the fickle hands of a third party.

This is where ownCloud fits in for me. Amongst the many features ownCloud has, the news aggregator was of timely interest.

Migrating to the ownCloud news aggregator was a seemless experience. I merely used Google's Take Out service to slurp down my Google Reader data and then used the web interface to import that data to the ownCloud news aggregator.

A few seconds later, I had all my news in ownCloud.

The web interface is rather elegant to use. Often with a news aggregator the UI is an horrendous experience but this was not the case with ownCloud.

I highly recommend using ownCloud's news service as a replacement for Google Reader.

Later I'll be looking at the Android client for the ownCloud news application.