What you need to know about Feedly Cloud and its web interface
The RSS news reader Feedly has been regarded by many as one of the most promising Google Reader alternatives. If users had something to criticize, it was that Feedly did not make available a web interface that users could access regardless of platform they were using and without having to install browser extensions or apps to do so.
The Feedly team announced today that it has published the first public version of the service's web interface. Feedly Cloud enables you to access the feed reader in the browser without using plugins, browser extensions or apps.
You can sign in to Feedly using your Google Account and if you have already added content to the service previously, you should see those subscriptions on the web interface as well. The articles on the other hand appear to be pulled from their sources the minute you start using the service and not before.
You can also create an account directly on the site or use other authentication options, e.g. by signing up using your Twitter account.
What some may not like as much is that you can only use the service if you sign in using your Google Account. I could not find an option to register an account directly on the site without ties to Google.
This may not be problematic for Google Reader users who may want to migrate their feed subscriptions to Feedly anyway, but if you are a new user you may not want the Google account linked to the service.
Feedly announced that it will add Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and LinkedIn authentication later on.
You can import your Google Reader subscriptions right on the front page of the service. Just enter your password here and follow the wizard to get started.
The web interface looks exactly like the browser extension powered interface. You can change the format right at the top. The available formats are:
- Titles: the most compact format. The publisher, article title, a couple of words of the article and time are displayed here.
- Magazine: displays thumbnail images, titles, the publisher and the first paragraph of the article sorted by publisher.
- Timeline:Â uses a similar layout as magazine but sorted by time instead of publisher.
- Cards: resembles the layout on Google+ and other social networking sites.
- Full articles: all articles are displayed in full (or as excerpts depending on how they are delivered).
You load the preferences from the side menu. Just move the mouse cursor to the left side of the screen and wait until it is fully displayed. Locate preferences here and click on the option.
The following options are made available here:
- Start Page: set the start page to Today, All or Index.
- Default View: set the default view mode to titles, magazine, cards or full articles.
- Categories with no updates: show or hide.
- Featured articles: display popular articles based on Google+ or Facebook on top, or not.
- Giant Mark as Read: display a big mark as read button, or not.
- Auto-Mark as read on scroll: only in full articles view, all views, or not at all.
- Header font: Helvetica or Sans-Serif.
- Essentials: Set the default language for the explore and essentials pages.
- Optimizer: optimize featured articles, yes or no.
- Read and unread links colors.
- Integrate Pinterest.
- Add Twitter postfix when sharing posts on Twitter.
- Enable Feedly Mini sharing toolbar?
- Exclude sites from the toolbar and set its bottom spacing.
- Include a Facebook or Twitter news feed in the side area?
- Finance Module stocks to trace.
- Confirm mark as read and unsubscribe.
- Display contextual menu when you select text.
You can switch to one of the available themes from the left sidebar menu as well. Note that this affects only the background color that surrounds the main content area.
Frequently Asked Questions
Syncing
The contents of Feedly's mobile apps and the web interface sync automatically. If you read an article on the web or in the app, it is marked read everywhere.
Importing Feeds
It is currently only possible to import feeds from Google Reader. While you can add individual feeds using the add content button, you cannot import an opml feed list right now. The only option around this would be to import the feed list into Google Reader first (as long as it is still available) to import it to Feedly then.
Browser compatibility
Feedly does not require browser extensions anymore on desktop systems. This means that you can now also access the service using previously unsupported browsers such as Internet Explorer or Opera.
Browser extensions?
There is no need to install a browser extension anymore. It is not really clear what will happen with them in the future. Users who are using the extension will be upgraded to the company's own cloud solution. Additional information about the migration are available here.
Monetization?
There are not any ads on Feedly right now. One way the company aims to make money is its monetization program that it will make available. It is not really clear how this will work out though. You find additional information on Feedly's publisher page.
I upgraded to the new Feedly version but
it still shows as an extension within Firefox.
The Feedly cloud link offers a sign-in and import.
The extension has not moved yet to the cloud for me.
Not sure if this will happen automatically
or if I have to force the move to the cloud.
Anyway, I am impressed coming from
Google Reader which I had to tweak with
multiple scripts and never looked this good.
Search is missing but I am told is coming.
Feedly was the only reader that imported
years of tags which was a critical issue.
Robert, extension users are already been migrated to the cloud. May take up until June 21 according to Feedly. You need to make sure that you are running the latest client version though which is 16.0.515.
Thanks, Martin. I was assuming it was some kind of rollout.
But I did find it odd it was not immediate since it looks
like I could do it manually right now if I cared to.
Martin, once my Feedly is on the cloud
I presume it is safe to uninstall the extension?
That is one thing that is probably not automatic.
I’d test that by disabling the extension first. I assume it should be just fine since all data is then stored in the cloud anyway so that it should not matter anymore how you connect.
Excellent idea, Martin. Thanks.
Disabling first is what I shall do.
I assume its fine too but disabling
guarantees reversing the unexpected.
Better safe than sorry ;)
Nice article, Martin. My questions about dropping the memory-heavy add-on has just been answered in the comments! :)
Feedly has said multiple times that they will be supporting login options other than Google in the near future. I think they are more worried about getting all of their users moved away from Google Reader first.
I had already migrated via the Feedly v16.0.514 Firefox extension, I think:
I wondered where the Feedly icon on my Firefox toolbar came from – the Feedly v16.0.514 Firefox extension put it there (after I had deleted it after installing an earlier version?). Click it and it rapidly displays “synchonizing feedly v…please wait”, then displays the login page.
I disabled the Feedly v16.0.514 Firefox extension, restarted Firefox, and the icon on the toolbar was gone. I had already bookmarked the Feedly home page, so I clicked the bookmark and the “synchonizing feedly v…please wait” display lasted a long time (I aborted rather than wait a couple of minutes).
So either I have not yet been fully migrated, or the extension is still required.
?
I’m not sure why, but they do not make it easy to avoid using Google, but, it is possible.
Example
http://feedly.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/184705-how-to-sign-up-for-feedly
Top right hand corner >
“New and returning users may sign in”
Click sign in > “New users can just enter their email address :) ”
Enter email address > click “Sign Up” enter a username > Sign Up
That’s it.
Another way…
Front page > left column > +Add Content > select a feed or enter ghacks into the search bar > click > Ghacks Technology > “+add to my feedly” > “Sign Up with Google” BIG BLUE BUTTON and then (smaller, all lowercase), “or create account”
I understand making things easier for Google Reader users, that’s a no-brainer, but I’m suspicious of the big push to use Google especially if I just want a new account and have no interest in importing/migrating anything.
People don’t understand the problems and dangers of having all of your eggs in one basket.
“or create account”
My mistake on that one, that’s to create a Google account, not a Feedly one, but the first method works.
I don’t like this, it doesn’t feel right, so I’m not bothering.
Thanks for the point from Ghacks again!
I wasn’t “true” web-RSS reader and Google Reader subscriber (hardly used it for my job purposes), but when I thought that it would be good to have some reading service for all my devices (working, home, tablet and so on), I recalled that Feedly was most praised on Ghacks.
I tried it, and it delivers well. :)
Fast and slick like the old Google interface used to be.