With the event of Google Reader being shut down, many who are let down by the shut down are still testing the grounds for alternatives. Today I want to introduce to you a better, feature-rich, clean and fresh alternative to Google Reader: Taptu.
Taptu offers a great looking, customizable homepage with other cool features like the ability to add sources and feeds from Facebook, Twitter and other online content providers.
It allows for users to graphically add feeds and content easily with the StreamStore, has amazing sharing options and more. Let’s check it out.
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Getting Started with Taptu
Getting started with Taptu is super simple, you can either sign up using your Google account, Facebook account, LinkedIn account or your Twitter account. After signing up Taptu will prompt you to add your interests and will automatically add feeds from various websites of the topics you chose alternatively, you can add your custom websites and feeds later on.
After you have setup your interests and added all of your other content sources you will now have a full Taptu homepage filled with all your topics and interests with content under them available for your enjoyment.
Streamstore
To add streams, topics and interests Taptu came up with a cool little feature called the Streamstore. Through the Streamstore you can search for a stream for example, if I wanted to add Hongkiat.com to my stream and tech interest I can search for Hongkiat and add the appropriate stream.
With the Streamstore you can also add your interests, topics, streams and content through neatly organized categories, with topics and also with other RSS and feed reader services.
Reading Your Content With Taptu
Once you have set up and received all the content you want to access with the Taptu client, you can now start enjoying one of the most important parts of Taptu, reading your content.
Your Taptu homepage will present to you every single one of your topics and the most recent content in each interest. If you want to view the content solely of a single interest, click the interest on the menu to the right.
You can also bookmark the articles and content that you have the most interest in and save it for reading later.
Sharing
After browsing through your feed and finding that article worth sharing with friends or family you can easily share it with a press of a button. Send and share content with Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and also with your email.
Another great feature is the ability to share articles to your account by bookmarking an article or other type of content to read, share or interact with it later.
Customization
Taptu allows you to customize your homepage and feed lists with easy-to-customize backgrounds, colors, fonts, names and custom topics.
Other Taptu customizations include customizing the layout of your homepage by dragging elements and topics around the page. You can also customize the logos and sources of the content in a certain topic, which is a small but pretty neat feature.
Advantages
- Clean and fresh design
- Multiple sharing options
- Use Taptu on Android, iOS, Windows and Mac
- Use the Streamstore to add interests, topics, links and other content
- Import content and feeds from other services
- Connect your Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google and Yahoo accounts
- Customize the looks of Taptu with customizable colors, backgrounds, fonts and topics
Disadvantages
- No list style or individual feed layouts. For example, like a blog layout.
- Feed and Content tags are a bit too un-functional.
- Merged Streams are lacking the good design that Taptu offers.
Conclusion
Taptu is a great alternative to Google Reader, and offers some great and useful features with a fresh and clean design. I believe Taptu is a great and solid alternative especially due to the wide range of support for all your devices. But if you do try it out, let us know in the comments.
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