Now that the reality of Google Reader's shut down has sunk in, alternate options have been spelled out and its time to get into action.

The first concern for most companies, bloggers, freelancers and every other web user, is how to keep their existing data together, right?

Despite Google's apocalyptic move, we do credit it for having a ready back-up gear to save its face. And what's that?

Google Takeout is the ready and reliable answer to save all your RSS feeds in one piece.

Launched in June 2011 by Google's Data Liberation Front, a team of expert engineers, who worked on helping the users to preserve all their data by allowing a "export" function. Hence, the name Takeout.




For starts, Google enabled the service only for Buzz, Contacts, Profile, Streams and Picasa Albums. But as of February 21st, 2013, there has been a significant expansion of its exportable service. It now includes:

1. Blogger posts
2. Google +1's, your Circles and posts
3. Google Drive files
4. Google Latitude
5. Google Reader websites
6. Google Voice settings
7. YouTube videos

However, significant core services like the Search history, Google Wallet details and GTalk chat history cannot be preserved yet.

Using the service is fairly simple and most useful, now, that the Reader is going to expire by July. Follow the simple steps and watch the video below to gather all your data in one place.

1. Go to Google Takout site and sign into with your Gmail user account.

2. Select the appropriate option i.e if you want to download all your existing data, you can select "All your Data" option or select the specific one by choosing a service option.

3. Select the "create archive" option and let the compression finish. Click on the "Download" option for saving the .xml file on your computer.

4. In most cases, due to security concerns, Google requires you to re-enter your Gmail password for reconfirmation.

5. You can now import the file to any new reader of your choice. Expect some minor things like tags and tweaks to not reappear in the new format.





Do try out these simple steps and let us know if it was helpful to you.

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