PC satisfaction scores dip as customers drift to tablets

'Misalignment of expectations' caused by Windows 8 disconnect with traditional computing devices, says pollster

The jarring combination of Microsoft's radical reinvention of Windows with old-style hardware caused the average satisfaction score of PC makers to slip in the last year, a pollster said today.

Meanwhile, Apple again took top honors by tying its own 2011 record in computing device customer satisfaction as measured by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), a consumer survey that's tracked opinions on technology for 18 years.

Apple's score of 87 -- out of a possible 100 -- was up one point from 2012 and seven points higher than its closest competitor.

The ACSI survey polled more than 2,700 Americans in April and May, asking them to rate their experiences with recently purchased devices -- desktop and notebook personal computers, as well as tablets -- sold by Apple, Acer, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Toshiba. The rest of the OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) were lumped into a secondary "All Others" category in ACSI's results.

With a score of 80, HP was Apple's nearest rival; other OEMs collected scores between 76 and 79.

Although both HP and Toshiba increased their ACSI ratings by a point compared to 2012's poll, Dell and Acer dropped two points and All Others fell four points. The average of all those, other than Apple, fell by a point, a decline of 1.3% over the prior year.

David VanAmburg, the managing director of ACSI, did not point a finger at Microsoft's Windows 8 for the slip in PC satisfaction -- as have some industry analysts -- but acknowledged it was a contributor.

"It's not so much Windows 8 itself as the incongruity between the operating system and most of the devices it's sold with," said VanAmburg. "There's a disconnect between what Windows 8 is touting and the desktop and laptop environment. I'd call it a misalignment of expectations."

VanAmburg was referring to Microsoft's pitch that Windows 8 is a "touch-first" OS that works best on touch- and gesture-enabled hardware, like tablets, and the inability of hardware makers to capitalize on that either on tablets or touch-ready notebooks.

Choices in the latter have been relatively skimpy, and prices have been considerably higher than for laptops that rely on a mouse -- or a touchpad -- and a keyboard. "If [OEMs] could get to lower prices on touch, it could be a whole different ball game," said VanAmburg, echoing Microsoft's own belief.

The lower scores overall for traditional PC makers, and the slip in ratings for the likes of Dell and Acer, neither of which has scored in tablets, are expressions of consumers' search for something more than PCs can provide, said VanAmburg.

"What we're seeing in our data is the same as what we're seeing in PC sales, that the trend toward greater mobility continues to gather steam," VanAmburg said. "Mobility is so attractive [it's] driving people away from PCs."

To tablets, specifically. On average, tablets recorded a satisfaction score of 81, two points higher than traditional PC form factors. "Tablets are just a more satisfying computing device," said VanAmburg, citing the data. Smartphones, too, have scored higher than PCs in ACSI's recent surveys.

PC shipments have contracted for five consecutive quarters, research firm IDC has said, and the slump shows no sign of ending before 2015. The decline in traditional PC sales -- from which Microsoft has always generated the bulk of its Windows revenue -- has put the Redmond, Wash., developer in a tough spot, and spurred it to aim for a "devices-and-services" strategy, revamp its corporate structure and look for a new CEO.

That the cause of those seismic shifts -- consumers' preference for more smartphones and tablets over PCs -- caused desktop and notebook makers' scores to drop didn't surprise VanAmburg.

"We would have been surprised if Apple had dropped, or PC makers suddenly surged to the top," said VanAmburg. "But this is a revolution like what happens to the industry every few years. A while ago, it was laptops. 'You mean I can pick up my computer and take it somewhere?' This is the next generation of that. People are increasingly adopting tablets and smartphones and buying fewer desktops and laptops."

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Availing the MCTS Certification

The MCTS Certification is one of the most advanced and important career oriented IT program that is currently being pursued by thousands of candidates all over the world. Since, this is a tough exam, it is necessary for the individuals to study very hard and put all efforts to qualify the exam. Hence, the preparation needs to be adequate and the skills derived from the program should be sound and appropriate, so that they can be put to good use at the time of the work.

Studying for the MCTS training program
It is necessary for the candidates to give enough time for studying and preparing for the MCTS exam. They need to undergo frequent practice tests, to ensure that they have a proper understanding of the different topics covered in the MCTS course and to ensure that they are ready to undergo the certification examination. This will not only help them to build immense confidence, but also provide them the much needed boost to their existing skills and knowledge. Therefore, preparation for the exam should be adequate and plenty of research needs to be done by the candidate, to ensure better grades. The Knowledge Academy professionals are well versed with the different types of topics that are covered in the course. This is because, they are provided with adequate training in the MCTS program and taken through various practical sessions, for giving them a better and clear understanding of the program.

MCTS course for facing challenges
It is important for the candidates to undergo the program seriously and sincerely, since, it would give them proper exposure on the MCTS Certification and help them to acquire the necessary skills that would be required for implementing in the work place. The exam presents the candidate with a chance to challenge their acquired knowledge and to understand how well they have learnt the program. Presently, the candidates are provided with three different formats, which include case study formats that would challenge their analytical skills, virtual labs and simulations for testing their knowledge and skills within the real setting.

The MCTS training program also presents the candidate with a chance to have a wonderful career change, in case they are finding their present one to be not quite rewarding. It has been noticed that candidates, who have successfully completed the program are presented with plenty of job opportunities and are provided with better positions and wonderful pay package. Moreover, the MCTS program also prepares the candidates to get a proper career change and to get a lucrative and rewarding career. A good MCTS training program is sure to include the study kits, audio and video presentations, preparation labs, mock test questions, study guides, self-study training kits and an access to a qualified and trained instructor, who would make all the difference to the entire MCTS course. This is sure to improve the knowledge of the individuals and help them to ascertain a better and rewarding career. Also, the candidates are sure to enjoy their training program and gain plenty of knowledge from it.

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IT hiring: Your text resume is soooo last century

Have a solid or bland background. Check behind you for distracting artwork, offensive material and unkempt home offices. (Hiring managers say they have indeed seen all of those during video interviews.)

Maintain eye contact by sitting still and looking into the camera. You don't want to fidget or multitask; such behavior wouldn't fly in an in-person interview, so it won't suit a video interview or presentation either.

Dress as you would for a face-to-face interview. (For those who need reminding, that means business attire suitable to the position and the company's culture.)

Guard against interruptions. Shut off your phone. Give the dog a bone, and make sure no one comes knocking at the door.

Don't forget to smile.

Others say video interviews -- either live or pre-recorded -- help by winnowing out candidates who might have Googled answers while on a phone interview, as well as those who lack interpersonal skills, which are of particular importance for IT professionals who interact with customers, executives, board members or the public.

On the other hand, some point to potential problems using video when screening candidates. Some employers wonder if it will open them up to claims of discrimination as they can more easily see traits (age or ethnicity, for example) that they shouldn't use to eliminate candidates. Other tech industry watchers worry that video interviews could unfairly prioritize presentation skills for jobs that don't necessarily require them. After all, coders don't need to come off well on camera to do a bang-up job, the argument goes.

Reed says such concerns keep many companies from adopting video as part of their candidate search and screening process. "Companies don't want to be susceptible to accusations," he says. He points out that candidates, too, often hesitate to use these tools because they're worried about where their videos will reside and for how long.

Resumes gain graphic, social flourishes

That said, video is nevertheless becoming more prevalent in the IT hiring process, just one of the multiple new formats and platforms that candidates are beginning to utilize for job searches. "The resume hasn't changed in the past 40 years. It just feels like it's time for it to evolve, and technology is at a place where it's helping us evolve it," Pollock says.

Pollock says he's seeing candidates successfully use graphics to represent skill sets, responsibilities and accomplishments on or as a supplement to their text-based resumes. Some IT workers, particularly Web designers or UI and UX professionals, maintain online portfolios or submit links to their work.

Others, such as developers, point to their contributions to open-source communities like GitHub. And, of course, job shoppers ignore at their own peril the reach of LinkedIn and, to a lesser extent, other social media sites like Facebook, Google+ or even Instagram.

"[Hiring companies] want to see what people are doing within the tech community, the development space, are they contributing? So I encourage people to have a strong digital profile as well as a resume, and LinkedIn is the primary tool for a strong digital profile," says Doug Schade, principal consultant in the software technology search division at Waltham, Mass.-based search firm WinterWyman.

Schade says savvy candidates know how to leverage social media to separate themselves from the pack. They don't just paste their traditional resumes into their LinkedIn profiles but rather focus on showcasing themselves with links and presentations that highlight their skills and accomplishments.

"There is an opportunity to be more robust with one's persona," Schade says, "because social media is used by hiring managers to gain more intel, gain more insight."

Web developer Avery Anderson gets that. Anderson, 27, graduated in 2008 from the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Needham, Mass., with a degree in mechanical engineering. She worked in the field for a year but decided it wasn't the best fit.

Anderson did some contract work in robotics, and then in February 2010 she sought out a Web engineer position at an Internet start-up for wine aficionados called Second Glass. "Web development seemed like a huge opportunity, but I didn't have a lot of experience, so I started with a personal website. It was like, 'See, I can make website.' That got me in the door," says Anderson, who was hired right away.

When she left Second Glass in April 2012, Anderson turned to her website again, tweaking and updating it to reflect more of her skills and personality. She says her site, along with her LinkedIn profile and her account at the online developers' site GitHub, got plenty of traffic; she estimates she was contacted by about 50 recruiters during her two-month job search, contacts that led to nearly 10 interviews -- including some Skype sessions.

She landed a software engineer job with The Minerva Project, a startup that's building an elite online university. Although she was introduced to the organization through a roommate, she says she knows the company checked her out online before she even walked in the door. "People Internet-stalk everyone before meeting in person," she observes.

And even though she's not looking for a new job now, she keeps up her personal website to have what she calls "a landing page" for people who want to know more about her and her work -- a particularly important point as she tries to gain more experience, recognition and speaking engagements.

"It's not just about what jobs you get. Every time you do things like that and work your way into the community more, you make yourself more valuable as an employable person, you build your reputation," she says.

Ondrey, the Marist College applications report specialist, says he and his colleagues are getting that message, so they're beefing up their online professional presence by posting or Tweeting articles they find interesting along with their own commentary. They're updating their skill sets and responsibilities more frequently. And they're adding videos -- both their own and others that are relevant to their field of interest.

That fits with what's happening at Appirio, a San Francisco-based cloud technology company with 650 employees globally.

"We have definitely seen more candidates modify their resumes to include links to their social media profiles," says Jennifer Taylor, Appirio's senior vice president of HR. Resumes now include Twitter handles and links to LinkedIn profiles and to blogs.

The process works both ways, Taylor says; she and her colleagues use social media to reach out to potential prospects. "Often we have found that it's through a Twitter conversation that one of our employees will identify someone in the ecosystem who is contributing unique ideas or products. We use those as an opportunity to say, 'Look at what this person is doing, we should start a conversation with this person,'" she says.

And while she says she hasn't yet received a video resume, she and her hiring managers use video to promote the company to prospective employees as well as to interview candidates -- something they do live using Skype, Google+ and occasionally GoToMeeting with video.

"We still believe that there is no replacement for face-to-face interviews, and we do make that a requirement before anyone is hired. But video is a very powerful format," she says. "It makes information about our company as available as possible, and it gets people familiar with us. It creates some rapport right off the bat. The candidate feels like they're getting to know us and vice versa."

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Top worst ten bugs in history of software.

History's Worst Software Bugs
Last month automaker Toyota announced a recall of 160,000 of its Prius hybrid vehicles following reports of vehicle warning lights illuminating for no reason, and cars' gasoline engines stalling unexpectedly. But unlike the large-scale auto recalls of years past, the root of the Prius issue wasn't a hardware problem -- it was a programming error in the smart car's embedded code. The Prius had a software bug.

With that recall, the Prius joined the ranks of the buggy computer -- a club that began in 1945 when engineers found a moth in Panel F, Relay #70 of the Harvard Mark II system.The computer was running a test of its multiplier and adder when the engineers noticed something was wrong. The moth was trapped, removed and taped into the computer's logbook with the words: "first actual case of a bug being found."

Sixty years later, computer bugs are still with us, and show no sign of going extinct. As the line between software and hardware blurs, coding errors are increasingly playing tricks on our daily lives. Bugs don't just inhabit our operating systems and applications -- today they lurk within our cell phones and our pacemakers, our power plants and medical equipment. And now, in our cars.

But which are the worst?

It's all too easy to come up with a list of bugs that have wreaked havoc. It's harder to rate their severity. Which is worse -- a security vulnerability that's exploited by a computer worm to shut down the internet for a few days or a typo that triggers a day-long crash of the nation's phone system? The answer depends on whether you want to make a phone call or check your e-mail.

Many people believe the worst bugs are those that cause fatalities. To be sure, there haven't been many, but cases like the Therac-25 are widely seen as warnings against the widespread deployment of software in safety critical applications. Experts who study such systems, though, warn that even though the software might kill a few people, focusing on these fatalities risks inhibiting the migration of technology into areas where smarter processing is sorely needed. In the end, they say, the lack of software might kill more people than the inevitable bugs.

What seems certain is that bugs are here to stay. Here, in chronological order, is the Wired News list of the 10 worst software bugs of all time … so far.

July 28, 1962 -- Mariner I space probe. A bug in the flight software for the Mariner 1 causes the rocket to divert from its intended path on launch. Mission control destroys the rocket over the Atlantic Ocean. The investigation into the accident discovers that a formula written on paper in pencil was improperly transcribed into computer code, causing the computer to miscalculate the rocket's trajectory.

1982 -- Soviet gas pipeline. Operatives working for the Central Intelligence Agency allegedly (.pdf) plant a bug in a Canadian computer system purchased to control the trans-Siberian gas pipeline. The Soviets had obtained the system as part of a wide-ranging effort to covertly purchase or steal sensitive U.S. technology. The CIA reportedly found out about the program and decided to make it backfire with equipment that would pass Soviet inspection and then fail once in operation. The resulting event is reportedly the largest non-nuclear explosion in the planet's history.

1985-1987 -- Therac-25 medical accelerator. A radiation therapy device malfunctions and delivers lethal radiation doses at several medical facilities. Based upon a previous design, the Therac-25 was an "improved" therapy system that could deliver two different kinds of radiation: either a low-power electron beam (beta particles) or X-rays. The Therac-25's X-rays were generated by smashing high-power electrons into a metal target positioned between the electron gun and the patient. A second "improvement" was the replacement of the older Therac-20's electromechanical safety interlocks with software control, a decision made because software was perceived to be more reliable.

What engineers didn't know was that both the 20 and the 25 were built upon an operating system that had been kludged together by a programmer with no formal training. Because of a subtle bug called a "race condition," a quick-fingered typist could accidentally configure the Therac-25 so the electron beam would fire in high-power mode but with the metal X-ray target out of position. At least five patients die; others are seriously injured.

1988 -- Buffer overflow in Berkeley Unix finger daemon. The first internet worm (the so-called Morris Worm) infects between 2,000 and 6,000 computers in less than a day by taking advantage of a buffer overflow. The specific code is a function in the standard input/output library routine called gets() designed to get a line of text over the network. Unfortunately, gets() has no provision to limit its input, and an overly large input allows the worm to take over any machine to which it can connect.

Programmers respond by attempting to stamp out the gets() function in working code, but they refuse to remove it from the C programming language's standard input/output library, where it remains to this day.

1988-1996 -- Kerberos Random Number Generator. The authors of the Kerberos security system neglect to properly "seed" the program's random number generator with a truly random seed. As a result, for eight years it is possible to trivially break into any computer that relies on Kerberos for authentication. It is unknown if this bug was ever actually exploited.

January 15, 1990 -- AT&T Network Outage. A bug in a new release of the software that controls AT&T's #4ESS long distance switches causes these mammoth computers to crash when they receive a specific message from one of their neighboring machines -- a message that the neighbors send out when they recover from a crash.

One day a switch in New York crashes and reboots, causing its neighboring switches to crash, then their neighbors' neighbors, and so on. Soon, 114 switches are crashing and rebooting every six seconds, leaving an estimated 60 thousand people without long distance service for nine hours. The fix: engineers load the previous software release.

1993 -- Intel Pentium floating point divide. A silicon error causes Intel's highly promoted Pentium chip to make mistakes when dividing floating-point numbers that occur within a specific range. For example, dividing 4195835.0/3145727.0 yields 1.33374 instead of 1.33382, an error of 0.006 percent. Although the bug affects few users, it becomes a public relations nightmare. With an estimated 3 million to 5 million defective chips in circulation, at first Intel only offers to replace Pentium chips for consumers who can prove that they need high accuracy; eventually the company relents and agrees to replace the chips for anyone who complains. The bug ultimately costs Intel $475 million.

1995/1996 -- The Ping of Death. A lack of sanity checks and error handling in the IP fragmentation reassembly code makes it possible to crash a wide variety of operating systems by sending a malformed "ping" packet from anywhere on the internet. Most obviously affected are computers running Windows, which lock up and display the so-called "blue screen of death" when they receive these packets. But the attack also affects many Macintosh and Unix systems as well.

June 4, 1996 -- Ariane 5 Flight 501. Working code for the Ariane 4 rocket is reused in the Ariane 5, but the Ariane 5's faster engines trigger a bug in an arithmetic routine inside the rocket's flight computer. The error is in the code that converts a 64-bit floating-point number to a 16-bit signed integer. The faster engines cause the 64-bit numbers to be larger in the Ariane 5 than in the Ariane 4, triggering an overflow condition that results in the flight computer crashing.

First Flight 501's backup computer crashes, followed 0.05 seconds later by a crash of the primary computer. As a result of these crashed computers, the rocket's primary processor overpowers the rocket's engines and causes the rocket to disintegrate 40 seconds after launch.

November 2000 -- National Cancer Institute, Panama City. In a series of accidents, therapy planning software created by Multidata Systems International, a U.S. firm, miscalculates the proper dosage of radiation for patients undergoing radiation therapy.

Multidata's software allows a radiation therapist to draw on a computer screen the placement of metal shields called "blocks" designed to protect healthy tissue from the radiation. But the software will only allow technicians to use four shielding blocks, and the Panamanian doctors wish to use five.

The doctors discover that they can trick the software by drawing all five blocks as a single large block with a hole in the middle. What the doctors don't realize is that the Multidata software gives different answers in this configuration depending on how the hole is drawn: draw it in one direction and the correct dose is calculated, draw in another direction and the software recommends twice the necessary exposure.

At least eight patients die, while another 20 receive overdoses likely to cause significant health problems. The physicians, who were legally required to double-check the computer's calculations by hand, are indicted for murder.

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Perceived missteps may have hit a tipping point for Ballmer

He has been in hot water over a variety of issues, including Microsoft's position in the tablet market

An accumulation of perceived missteps under Steve Ballmer's leadership may have hit a tipping point this year, leading to Friday's groundshaking announcement that Bill Gates' former right hand and heir, as well as Microsoft's fiercest cheerleader, will step down as CEO within the next 12 months.

In recent years, Ballmer has been the target of critics over a variety of issues, including their dissatisfaction with the company's stock performance, Google's dominance in search advertising, the perception that Microsoft reacted late to cloud computing and its weak position in the tablet and smartphone OS markets.

[QUIZ: Steve Ballmer said what?!]

Most recently, Ballmer has been in hot water over Windows 8, a major upgrade of its flagship OS that many perceive as a flawed release. Billed as a product of historic importance, Windows 8 represents Microsoft's attempt to improve Windows' anemic participation in tablets and smartphones, where Android and Apple's iOS dominate.

However, Windows 8, which began shipping in October, has been heavily criticized due to its radically redesigned user interface, which is based on tile icons and optimized for tablets and other touchscreen devices.

Windows 8 also has a more traditional Windows desktop interface for running legacy applications, but many consumer and enterprise users have complained that toggling between the two interfaces is clunky and inconvenient. There has also been an outcry about the removal of the Start menu and button.

Microsoft plans to release an update for the OS, called Windows 8.1, in October. It addresses these complaints and several others, but there is a concern that the fixes may be too little, too late to salvage the OS's reputation and that it might end up being a fiasco like Windows Vista.

Some critics maintain that attempting to build a single OS for desktops, laptops and tablets was a strategic mistake because Microsoft has ended up instead with a product that isn't good enough for any of those devices. Apple's strategy, by contrast, has been to have Mac OS for its desktops and laptops, and iOS for the iPad, iPhone and iPod.

Another focus of criticism for Ballmer has been what many consider a bad strategy related to the company's Office cash-cow franchise of refraining from releasing a full-fledged version of the suite for iOS and Android. Seen as a move to protect Windows, critics of this strategy say Microsoft is leaving billions of dollars on the table by not giving users of iPads and Android tablets a full version of Office.

Ballmer has also shouldered the blame for the controversial and so far not very successful decision to have Microsoft manufacture and brand its own tablet, the Surface, an attempt to mimic the model popularized by Apple with its combination of iOS and the iPhone, iPod and iPad devices.

The move has upset the company's hardware partners, because they view it as unexpected competition from Microsoft. Beyond that, the first Surface models haven't sold well.

In its fourth quarter, which closed in late June, Microsoft missed Wall Street's revenue and profit expectations while taking an almost $1 billion charge related to the dismal sales of the Surface RT, the model that runs Windows RT, the Windows 8 version for ARM chip devices.

The other Surface model, the Pro, which runs x86 chips, has been criticized for being too expensive and for being a battery hog.

In mid-July, Ballmer shook up the company's executive ranks with a broad reorganization billed as necessary to reinvent Microsoft as a devices and services company, and evolve from being a provider of packaged software.

The goal is to make Microsoft function more cohesively and be more efficient and innovative so it can better compete against rivals like Apple, Oracle, IBM and Google.

The reorganization, which is being implemented now, dissolved the company's five business units -- the Business Division, which housed Office; Server & Tools, which included SQL Server and System Center; the Windows Division; Online Services, which included Bing; and Entertainment and Devices, whose main product was the Xbox console.

Those business units are being replaced by four engineering groups organized by function, around OSes, applications, cloud computing and devices, and by centralized groups for marketing, business development, strategy and research, finance, human resources, legal and operations.

However, the plan has also met with skepticism among those who believe that it will lead to less accountability, less clarity and ultimately less agility.

Others maintain that the "One Microsoft" mantra at the center of the reorganization is misguided because the opposite approach is needed, namely to reorganize it into more independent operating companies because it now houses businesses and products that are too different -- like the SQL Server enterprise database and the Xbox console.

Ballmer's departure will be a historic turning point for Microsoft. Ballmer, who is 57 and joined Microsoft in 1980, has been CEO since 2000. In a statement, he said the decision to step down wasn't easy, but that he believes it is the right one.

In particular, he's convinced Microsoft should have a CEO who is on board for the entire "transformation" process set off by the reorganization announced last month.

"Our new senior leadership team is amazing. The strategy we have generated is first class. Our new organization, which is centered on functions and engineering areas, is right for the opportunities and challenges ahead," Ballmer wrote.

Wall Street's response has been enthusiastic, with the share price up almost 7 percent in late morning trading.

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IIS 6.0 does not serve aspx pages out of the box

I have used ASP.NET for quite some time. I have probably always been lucky that the infrastructure or deployment person always enabled aspx on IIS for me. I use a Windows XP with IIS 5 sometimes or Vista with IIS 7. They do serve aspx pages by default, on XP once the .NET framework is downloaded and installed, there is nothing else to tweak.

On Friday afternoon, I had to deploy to an IIS 6 box on windows 2003, to my surprise, it didn’t serve any of the aspx pages. Even a small Hello World project on an simple label. I missed the happy hour with my colleagues and went home completely puzzle. Why? ASP.NET was already available when Windows 2003 saw the light. To my surprise there was nothing on the event log.

The answer came a few hours later and after few Google queries:

IIS 6.0: ASP.NET Is Not Automatically Installed on Windows Server 2003

1. Open IIS Manager, expand the master server node (that is, the Servername node), and then select the Web service extensions node.
2. In the right pane of IIS Manager, right-click the extension that you want to enable. In this example, this is Active Server Pages.
3. Click to select the Allow check box.

Add a New Web Service Extension to IIS 6.0

To permit IIS to serve content that requires a specific ISAPI or CGI extension that is not already listed in the Web service extensions list, follow these steps:
1.Open IIS Manager, expand the master server node, and then select the Web service extensions node.
2.In the right pane of the IIS Manager, click Add a new Web service extension under Tasks.
3.In the Extension name box, type a friendly name for the extension that you want to add (for example, FrontPage Server Extensions).
4.In the Required files box, click Add, and then select the path and the name of the file that will handle requests for the specific extension. After you select the path and the file name, click OK.
5. If the extension must be enabled immediately, click to select the Set extension status to allowed check box.
6. Click OK to save your changes.

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9 Great Google Reader Replacements

These nine RSS feed readers all offer something different, whether it's speed, simplicity, social interaction, or DIY-level customization. Which one is right for you?

You want content from your favorite blogs, news sources, and sites of curiosities delivered to an inbox-like environment. You want to be able to scan those items, and perhaps read them, or maybe save them to read later. I do, too, and for a long time, I used Google Reader for my RSS feed-reading needs. But as of July 1, Google no longer provides that service.

Many of us who rely on RSS for news updates, streamlined leisure reading, and other direct delivery of information from the worldwide Web have been busy looking for the best service ever since Google announced it was taking Reader to the graveyard.

But not all RSS feed readers have the same features. Do you need a your RSS content to include Google Alerts? Is access to a native mobile app at the top of your list? Do you like your RSS reader service to suggest new content that you may not have otherwise found?

My personal quest for a new RSS feed reader led me to reevaluate what was important. Simplicity and a clean design came out on top. I also spent a long time looking at which readers included tools to help me organize my feeds. I don't use RSS for breaking news, so speed was a little lower on my list.

Support for OPML file uploads, on the other hand, seemed just as important as anything else, as that function is necessary for former Google Reader users to migrate at their own pace. Any reader that does not support OPML files requires connection to Google on or before July 1, and I feel like those services should do better by their potential users and give them more time to migrate. On the other hand, services that support OPML allow former Reader users to join any time, provided they've snagged their Google Takeout data and have their subscriptions.xml file ready to upload.

My colleagues and I at PCMag rigorously tested many alternatives to Google Reader. Two favorites came out on top, which became our Editors' Choices. But depending on what's important to you, a different service could fit your needs better. Take a look at these top services and our notes about their pros and cons to see which one will work best for you. And if nothing in this list tickles your fancy, see, "Top Free Picks: RSS Readers."

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