Feed Wrangler
The demise of Google Reader came as a surprise to many, but not David Smith. David had been working on an RSS service for a few months before Google announced the retirement of Google Reader. The timing of the announcement however, forced a significant change in his plans. He quickly ramped up development with the goal of an April release to give users plenty of time to migrate before the July 1st shutdown of Google Reader. After months of hard work, David’s alternative to Google Reader, Feed Wrangler was released on Tuesday, April 30.
Feed Wrangler is not simply an RSS reader; it is an RSS platform. A Feed Wrangler subscription is $18.99 a year and gives you access to the Feed Wrangler website, the iOS (iPhone and iPad) app, and an upcoming Mac OS X app. David is also planning on releasing an API that will allow third party developers to integrate the Feed Wrangler service into their apps. Since the users are paying David directly for the service, he isn’t concerned whether you are using the official Feed Wrangler apps or third party apps. I hope that Feed Wrangler develops a large following and the API garners a healthy ecosystem of apps and services built on top of it.
Feed Wrangler handled my migration from Google Reader nearly seamlessly. It did change my In Focus feed to the generic The Atlantic master feed, but this was easily corrected. One of the first things I noticed in Feed Wrangler was the lack of folder support. I was taken aback for a moment until I discovered the Smart Streams. Smart Streams are much more powerful than folders in that you can create a group of feeds based on a filter. For example, you could create an Apple Smart Stream that only contains posts mentioning Apple. I am currently using Smart Streams as I was using folders in Google Reader. I created a smart stream for Tech that only has feeds from a select group of technology-related sites that I manually selected.
The Feed Wrangler website is pretty minimalist. The website focuses on enabling users to quickly process their feeds and succeeds flawlessly in this goal. I find that I am able to scan through my feeds and process them faster with Feed Wrangler than I could with Google Reader. The only issue is that the website is lacking more powerful features like keyboard navigation, direct sharing, and mark unread. I would also like to see a small post preview beneath each title with one or two lines of the post content.
The Feed Wrangler Website 
The iOS apps are also not as full featured as many other top RSS readers in the App Store today. I would like to see more gesture controls and a better focus on reading. Adding some additional fonts and possibly a dark theme for late night reading would go a long way. Despite lacking some of these features, the iOS apps are very fast and like the website, excel in allowing you to quickly get through your feeds.
Feed Wrangler for iOS 
Overall Feed Wrangler shows some great promise. I know David has been working hard to get the service ready for launch and has a large feature-rich roadmap in front of him. Since the Feed Wrangler revenue comes directly from user subscriptions, he has every incentive to continue making Feed Wrangler a world class RSS service that will stand out in an ever more crowded market. Do yourself a favor and check it out. There is no trial version, but if you sign up for Feed Wrangler from the website, you are guaranteed a refund within 14 days if it’s not the service for you.