Feedly, the company offering products and services positioned as the best alternatives to Google Reader, today launched Feedly Cloud, a scalable infrastructure that serves as the backbone to Feedly as well as multiple reading applications. Best of all, Feedly Cloud also powers a new standalone Web version of Feedly (no plugins or extensions needed) that also debuts today.
Feedly Cloud is currently processing over 25 million feeds every day, crunching through billions of articles. Before Google announced Reader’s upcoming demise on July 1, Feedly had 4 million users. At the end of May, this number had tripled to 12 million users, the company shared with TNW.
Today’s announcement highlights exactly why the growth is so massive: Feedly is listening to the community. Feedly Cloud is a platform that caters to developers, publishers and bloggers, and of course end users.
Feedly Cloud offers an open API to third-party developers, over 200 of which have already requested access. Today, nine Feedly Cloud applications are launching, though the company expects many more in the coming weeks and months:
- IFTTT: the Feedly channel lets you connect your Feedly account to 63 other services (including Evernote, Google Drive, Gmail, Pocket, Instapaper, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, WordPress, etc.).
- Sprout Social: the social media management platform enables you to more effectively manage social channels and provide an exceptional customer experience from your browser, iOS and Android devices. You can connect your Feedly account to begin reading and posting content to your community directly from Sprout Social.
- Nextgen Reader for Windows 8 and Windows Phone: a fast, clean and beautiful reader app inspired by the Metro UI and packed with powerful features. It’s the best way to read your Feedly on your Microsoft-powered devices.
- gNewsReader for BlackBerry 10 and for Symbian/MeeGo: two elegant and versatile readers providing full Feedly support for BlackBerry and Symbian devices.
- Press: a wonderful reader for Android that is all about the reading experience. It’s designed with the purpose of making your news easier to read, and includes full offline support.
- gReader: a simple, fast and intuitive reader for Android, featuring beautiful themes, podcast support and full offline support.
- Newsify: an awesome reader for iPhone or iPad, with an amazing newspaper-like layout. It supports offline reading including image caching, and the use of multiple feedly accounts.
- Pure News Widget: a scrollable and actionable reader widget for Android, with multiples skins.
- Meneré: a Windows Desktop client to Feedly showing all items, filter them by read state, feed label and content and brings Snarl notifications.
While all these apps are great, the standalone Web version is arguably the biggest news being revealed today. It means Feedly is now available from any browser, including Opera and Internet Explorer, just like Google Reader.
Feedly says this was “one of the most requested features” and I’m not surprised. One of my personal requirements for a Google Reader alternative was that it be Web-based, so that I could access it from not just my computer, but from any device I can get a hold of.
On the desktop, Feedly’s requirements meant I needed to have an extension for Chrome, while on mobile, I needed to install an app and have either an Android or iOS device. That all changes today, and I’ll finally let myself give Feedly a shot.
Google Reader is going away in less than two weeks, and Feedly is offering a one-click migration path. Excellent timing.
Top Image Credit: Scott Rubin
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