Seven years is quite a long time in Internet years, but not long enough for Google Reader.  One of our favorite tools for RSS management, Google Reader is being sunset by its parent company, a sad development we’ve expected for a while now.  Thanks to declining use and the rise of Twitter and other sites delivering news stories, Google is sweeping off Reader in its widespread Spring Cleaning initiative, making the RSS tool one of the many failed projects to mourn at Google.

Luckily there’s a few alternatives to consider moving forward:

Six Alternatives to Google Reader

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Netvibes

A personalized dashboard publishing platform for Web and digital life aggregation, organized into tabs that contain user-defined modules.  It features built-in modules that include an RSS/Atom feed reader, local weather forecasts, a calendar supporting iCal, bookmarks, notes, to-do lists, multiple searches, support for POP3, IMAP4 email as well as several webmail providers such as Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, and AOL Mail, as well as web storage like Box.net.  It also supports Delicious, Meebo, and Flickr.  There’s also a built-in audio player that supports podcasts.

Feedly
A news aggregator or RSS feed reader for web browsers as well as mobile devices running on iOS and Android platforms.  It aggregates news from different online sources which the user can customize and share with their peers.  Users can customize content pulled by Feedly to include personal preference, as well as alter the interface by changing the layout, color, and categorization of articles based on sources, likes, and those referred to by other users.

Flipboard

Not only is Flipboard an RSS reader, but it’s highly social as well.  Flipboard is known for its aesthetic appeal, turning your social feeds into a digital magazine.  But to further customize your content, you can add feeds from websites to be included in your daily reading experience.  Available on iPad, Flipboard now has an Android version.  Flipboard is primarily a mobile tool, and is leading the way for consumer-oriented RSS feed consumption through usability and design.

NewsBlur

A personal news reader that brings people together to talk about anything under the sun.  It is available for web browsers, and iOS and Android platform.  It brings real-time RSS and allows users to view the article on the original site, share stories with friends, and highlight stories that you are interested in as well as hiding the ones that you can’t be bothered with.

FeedDemon

Probably the best RSS reader for the Windows platform that features a user-friendly interface, making content discovery quick.  It features tagging so you can assign keywords to items with the goal of making things easier to classify and locate later.   You can program FeedDemon to inform you when a tag appears in any feed you are subscribed to, as well as if it appears on feeds you aren’t subscribed to.  It can also automatically download audio files of feeds you are subscribed to and save it on your iPod or other media devices.

FeedReader

A free RSS news aggregation solution that provides robust features in an intuitive, user-friendly environment.  It comes with the Feedreader Browser, which allows you to setup feeds you want to subscribe to.  And then there’s the Feedreader online feature that allows you to view subscribed feeds everywhere you go, using any device, without having to install or setup anything– just log in with your FeedReader account.