Breaking news: there's an alternative to Google Reader

Tiny Tiny RSS. Here's a demo. If you like it, you can install it in any server with PHP + (MySQL|PostgreSQL). If you like it a lot, you can enable the multiuser support and share your own online reader service with some friends.

Then stop moaning worrying about Google datamining your interests or profiling your attention span, or feature X being changed arbitrarily because of business reasons, or Gorgeous Google Reader Alternative Yet To Be Developed to have even an alpha release that you can have a look at if you're lucky and get an early invitation. Also, if you don't like something about the software, just fork it and change it. Then maybe send a pull request? All hail the powers of Git!

Jokes aside, I've been sporadically using this nifty little web application for a couple of months now. It might not be as "polished" as Google Reader, but it certainly is the best of all the alternatives I tried. I'm not a heavy user of feed readers--I use them as the equivalent of a customised magazine which caters to my tastes, and not as a news source. I read feeds when I have time and feel like reading, not as a mandatory duty that I have to fulfill every day, lest the reader explode with unread items.

Tiny Tiny RSS also has support for autopurging feeds (the way Google Reader deletes stuff you haven't read in X days); an API so things such as a mobile TTRSS app can be possible, and there also are some sort of functionalities such as sharing public items and interconnecting TTRSS installations that I haven't tried but sound cool in any case.

So there you go. Enjoy it!