Real alternative for Google Feed API
I find myself working with feeds (rss, atom, json, etc) pretty often, and most of the time it's mixing these feeds together for a site, and it's nothing but pain trying to build your code to get every condition right, and it's a waste of time, money and resources.
So I've been using the Google Feed API for a lot of stuff, but now that's it has been killed (but not buried, yet [buried 2nd of December 2015] {given some more time 4th of December}) , I have to find an alternative. Here's the features that made Google Feed API awesome, and these are also requirements for any alternative:
- Works with URL, just like the good old Google API: https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/services/feed/load?v=2.0&num=200&q=http://blog.stackoverflow.com/feed/ [So, GET requests? I guess POST would be also fine, but GET is always better for our use]
- Produces predictable output (returns the same json schema every time, no matter what kind of feed)
It doesn't really matter if it's a paid service (within reason, of course), or if it comes with a free plan, but ease of use should be a priority!
Having to whitelist a domain which is allowed to request from said service backend is ok, or using a token, but having to subscribe to a feed from a backend is not acceptable, as we build these services for clients, who will not have access to said backends or want to use them.
TL;DR;
We need a service that converts any feed I throw at it to JSON from URL. Can cost money, or be self hosted. (which would probably be best, seeing what happened to Yahoo Pipes, and then Feed API...)
Edit
So, Google Feed API was buried today, and a lot of stuff is now dead. While I do generally agree that recommendation-questions attract opionated answers and spam, there really isn't any information available on the subject, it's feedburner or superfeedr that I keep getting results, and neither don't really offer the same functionality as Google's api.
Julian has a good point in the comments, no one can afford to poll all feeds in the world, but no one is asking to do that.
I would gladly pay per request to fetch feeds per request, I'm not asking to keep track of the feed 24/7, only when I ask for it. That's the main problem with Superfeedr, alongside the fact that it's not as easy to use.
Edit 2
Seems like I don't have to pay per request:
I would thread carefully with this one though, as it's free, has no information whatsoever and is probably going to have a hard time with the traffic as people start finding it.
There's also plenty of OS alternatives popping up on Github.