Wordpress.com's Reader Precedes as Google Reader Exits the Top Spot

The entire web-o-sphere was taken aback after Google announced the untimely and sudden demise of it's Reader, the most favored organization tool amongst most information junkies including journalists and bloggers. On Wednesday, Google officially announced the powering down of it's Reader RSS Feed aggregator. The reasons quoted by the giant were simple- the following of Reader had declined with time and secondly, Google would be focusing its energy on a fewer products.

And now, the race to be the next Google Reader has begun. Amidst the various speculations about the new ruler of the top spot, Wordpress.com's Reader is making it to the headlines. Numerous industry experts are putting their bet on this Reader and for all the right reasons. WP.com's Reader renders support for XML format OPML. Well, if you are not a hardcore techie, then you can simply read it as- you will be able to transfer your Google Reader feeds directly to Wordpress.com by following a few simple steps. Google is also rendering an export path on its site, which will further simplify the process for you.

Wordpress.com Reader hit the market place about an year and a half ago. It's latest update was released in January, earlier this year and is being developed rigorously. The timing of this release has given rise to a speculation in the web arena- did the coders at Auttomatic have a crystal ball that helped them predict the end of Google Reader? Well, may be because they have released a Reader that is easy to use, clean and gorgeous.

Experts are of the view that if Google hadn't stopped it's development process and would have released updates even after October 2011, it could easily match up, or may be even surpass, the standards of the current version of Wordpress.com Reader.

The WP Reader for PSD to Wordpress blog displays and lets you view posts from all the blogs that you are following in the order they have been published. This means the most recent posts will be displayed at the top, followed by the ones published earlier. You also get a chance to read an excerpt of each post, the first image used in that post or any thumbnail images that the post includes. Furthermore, you have the option of re-blogging or liking WP posts directly via the Reader using the icons displayed on the right corner of every post.

Firstly, the user experience offered by WP is commendable. The navigation is simple, bold and clean just as in Tumblr. And taking que from the recent fad about visual content, Wordpress.com has integrated photo display capabilities in the platform. Pictures of 595px and more are displayed above the post in full width and excellent quality.

But all that glitters isn't gold right? Well, wrong, at least in this case. This Reader is easy to use and simple to navigate through. You get pre-defined list of topics and suggested blogs, plus commendable search capabilities to look through WP blog family. RSS/Atom support makes life even simpler for bloggers. This means you can add additional information sources to your blog in just one click. And if you are working on a Firefox or Chrome version that has a “follow” button installed, things get further simplistic. There's something for all. With social media integration and support for mobile devices, WP Reader can be accessed on the go.

The adept coders at Automattic are working rigorously towards improving this project, and the company assures that the future development has a lot more enticing features in store for the users.