The Old Reader

The Old Reader was started as a hobby project by Elena Bulygina, Dmitry Krasnoukhov, and Anton Tolchanov. In March 2013, it had only 10,000 users, but it started gaining popularity quickly after Google announced that month that it would retire Google Reader.{{cite web|title=Ukrainian trio's 'Old Reader' alternative to Google Reader|url=http://www.kyivpost.com/guide/people/ukrainian-trios-old-reader-alternative-to-google-reader-321919.html|publisher=Kyiv Post|author=Christopher J. Miller|date=19 March 2013}} By the end of April 2013, the project already had 200,000 users and Anton had to quit, leaving just Elena and Dmitry.{{cite news |date=25 April 2013 |title=It's this time of the year again: a long post from Elena |newspaper=Tumblr |publisher=The Old Reader blog |url=http://blog.theoldreader.com/post/48883056804/its-this-time-of-the-year-again-a-long-post-from |last1=Beautiful |first1=All Cats Are }}

In August 2013, a month after Google Reader was shut down, two remaining co-founders were struggling to keep The Old Reader running in the face of a large influx of new users. On July 29, The Old Reader team stated they had 420,000 registered users, with as many as 60,000 registrations in a single day.{{cite web|url=https://www.theverge.com/2013/7/29/4569836/the-old-reader-closes-registration-after-months-of-hell|title=The Old Reader RSS app closes registration after months of 'hell'|publisher=TheVerge|author=Nathan Olivarez-Giles|date=29 June 2013|access-date=10 January 2014}} The team announced their intention to close the public version of the reader, leaving only a private website for a limited number of people.{{cite news |author1=Elena Bulygina |author2=Dmitry Krasnoukhov |date=29 July 2013 |title=Desperate times call for desperate measures |newspaper=Tumblr |publisher=The Old Reader blog |url=http://blog.theoldreader.com/post/56798895350/desperate-times-call-for-desperate-measures }}{{cite news |author=Victoria McNally |date=30 June 2013 |title=The Old Reader Might Go Private and Boot Out All Google Reader Refugees Next Month |publisher=Geekosystem |url=http://www.geekosystem.com/old-reader-private/ }}{{cite news |author=Emil Protalinski |date=29 July 2013 |title=The Old Reader to close public site in two weeks, users who joined before Google Reader axing news can stay |publisher=The Next Web |url=https://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/07/29/the-old-reader-to-close-public-site-in-two-weeks-users-who-joined-before-google-reader-axing-news-can-stay/ }}{{cite news |author=Eric Limer |date=29 July 2013 |title=Even Google Reader Replacements Are Shutting Down |publisher=Gizmodo |url=https://gizmodo.com/even-google-reader-replacements-are-shutting-down-952901748 }} However, a few days later, another announcement stated that the website will remain public, with support from an unnamed "corporate entity in the United States".{{cite news |author=Ben Wolf |date=3 August 2013 |title=The New Old Reader |newspaper=Tumblr |publisher=The Old Reader blog |url=http://blog.theoldreader.com/post/57274499607/the-new-old-reader }}{{cite news |author=Carly Page |date=5 August 2013 |title=Google Reader alternative The Old Reader will stay open to the public |publisher=The Inquirer |url=http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2286941/google-reader-alternative-the-old-reader-will-stay-open-to-the-public |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130810102025/http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2286941/google-reader-alternative-the-old-reader-will-stay-open-to-the-public |url-status=unfit |archive-date=August 10, 2013 }}{{cite news |author=Jonah Feldman |date=5 August 2013 |title=The Old Reader Will Stay Open Thanks To Unidentified Benefactor |publisher=Geekosystem |url=http://www.geekosystem.com/old-reader-saved/ }}{{cite news |author=Emil Protalinski |title=The Old Reader lives: Site will stay open to the public thanks to an unnamed 'corporate entity' in the US |publisher=The Next Web |url=https://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/08/04/the-old-reader-backpedals-site-will-stay-open-to-the-public-thanks-to-unnamed-corporate-entity-in-the-us/ }} In November 2013, the team mentioned that the new owner was Levee Labs.

The new team invested in hardware upgrade and changed the hosting provider,{{cite news |date=5 August 2013 |title=The Old Reader's Big Move |newspaper=Tumblr |publisher=The Old Reader blog |url=http://blog.theoldreader.com/post/57441592309/the-old-readers-big-move |last1=Beautiful |first1=All Cats Are }} implemented a number of new features, including long-awaited browser bookmarklet.{{cite news |date=17 July 2014 |title=Add and share any web page with The Old Reader! |newspaper=Tumblr |publisher=The Old Reader blog |url=http://blog.theoldreader.com/post/89064811344/add-and-share-any-web-page-with-the-old-reader |last1=Beautiful |first1=All Cats Are }} The founders of the site had publicly rejected ad-based tactics to support the service;{{cite news |author1=Elena Bulygina |author2=Dmitry Krasnoukhov |author3=Anton Tolchanov |date=14 March 2013 |title=Unexpected day: what are we gonna do about Google Reader death? Keep calm and carry on. |newspaper=Tumblr |publisher=The Old Reader blog |url=http://blog.theoldreader.com/post/45337829605/unexpected-day-what-are-we-gonna-do-about-google }} the new team shares their vision, and in order to finance operations for the otherwise free application introduced a Premium service in February 2014.{{cite news |author=Emil Protalinski |date=12 February 2014 |title=The Old Reader launches Premium version for users with more than 100 feeds: $3 per month or $30 per year |publisher=The Next Web |url=https://thenextweb.com/insider/2014/02/12/old-reader-launches-premium-version-users-100-feeds-3-per-month-30-per-year/ }}

In March 2024, Ben Wolf, one of the owners of Levee Labs, posted on LinkedIn that they had closed an acquisition and that The Old Reader would have a new team taking over, but no more details were given since.{{cite web |date=9 March 2024 |title=Old Reader Acquisition |publisher=Ben Wolf on LinkedIn |url=https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ben-wolf-3131093_rss-acquisition-activity-7172277007152533505-x-Kn }}

The Old Reader is free for up to 100 feeds and offers a Premium version with full-text search and up to 500 subscriptions and 1 year of post storage. Former users of Google Reader or other RSS readers can import feeds via OPML export.{{cite web |title=The Old Reader |publisher=The Old Reader |url=https://theoldreader.com/ }} A browser bookmarklet lets users send web pages directly to The Old Reader account.

The service is integrated with Facebook or Google to help users find friends also using the site.{{cite web |title=The Old Reader Privacy Policy

|publisher=The Old Reader |url=https://theoldreader.com/pages/privacy }} There is also support for Readability, Instapaper, and Spritz, a service to help read content faster.{{cite news |date=15 May 2014 |title=Spritz Integration |newspaper=Tumblr |publisher=The Old Reader blog |url=http://blog.theoldreader.com/post/85826367954/spritz-integration |last1=Beautiful |first1=All Cats Are }}

The Old Reader has made its mobile API freely available to facilitate support for mobile applications.{{cite web |title=theoldreader/api |website=Github |url=https://github.com/theoldreader/api }} The service is supported by a number of mobile applications for all major platforms, including Reeder{{cite web |title=Reeder for iOS |publisher=Reeder |author=Silvio Rizzi |url=http://reederapp.com/ios/ }} and Feeddler{{cite web|url=http://www.johndscomputers.com/2013/reviews/review-of-feeddler-and-the-old-reader-as-replacement-for-google-reader/|date=17 July 2013|title=Updated Review of Feeddler and The Old Reader as Replacement for Google Reader|author=John D Carmack|publisher=John D's Computer Services}} for iOS, Greader for Android{{cite web |url=http://adamyamada.com/greader-the-old-reader-android-app-mobile-browser-sweet/ |title=Greader is The Old Reader Android app & Mobile Browser experience is Sweet|author=Adam Yamada |date=29 August 2013}} (no longer available as of 2018{{cite web |url=https://www.androidpolice.com/2018/08/24/popular-rss-app-greader-vanishes-play-store/ |title=Popular RSS app gReader vanishes from the Play Store|publisher=Android Police |author=Ryan Whitwam|date=24 August 2018}}), Old Reader for Windows Phone{{cite web |url=http://allaboutwindowsphone.com/flow/item/18520_Windows_Phone_client_for_The_O.php |title=Windows Phone client for The Old Reader reaches v3.0|publisher=All About Windows Phone |author=Ewan Spence|date=8 October 2013}} and ThOR for Symbian.{{cite web |url=http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/flow/item/18164_ThOR_debuts_brings_The_new_Old.php|title=ThOR debuts, brings The (new!) Old Reader to Symbian|publisher=AllAboutSymbian|author= Steve Litchfield |date=20 August 2013|access-date=23 October 2013}}

The Old Reader's reception was generally positive. PC Magazine praised its simple design and social aspects, but noted it lacked some of the features of its competitors.{{cite web|url=https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2420821,00.asp|title=The Old Reader|publisher=PcMag|author=Jill Duffy|date=22 June 2013|access-date=19 January 2014}} Dave Winer, one of the creators of RSS and other technology pundits have praised The Old Reader team's commitment to open web standards and delivering ad-free services,{{Citation needed|date=October 2014}} although as of 17 March 2015 the service includes "sponsored posts" inline with aggregated content{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}}.

• Comparison of feed aggregators
• RSS Reader
• Feedly
• Digg Reader
• NewsBlur

{{reflist}}

• [http://status.theoldreader.com/ Status page of The Old Reader]
• [http://blog.theoldreader.com/ Official blog]
• [https://theoldreader.com/pages/apps List of supporting apps]

{{Web syndication}}

{{Aggregators}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Old Reader}}

Category:News aggregators

Category:IOS software

Category:Android (operating system) software

Category:Web software