Google reader is going to be gone in July.  which means a lot of RSS junkies are going to be searching for replacements.  But as Google Reader falls, who are the rising stars?  Where are the RSS junkies to go to next?  

Earlier this week, CIO came up with some different ideas than we did, highlighting these 5 RSS replacements to look into:

• Feedly
• Zite
• Skimr
• Fever
• Taptu

We’d like to go a different route. These services are great, but they all lack what we see as one of the most important elements.  A focus on the visual.  Of the 5 options mentioned above, Taptu comes the closest to really fulfilling that visual need.  The mind works best with visual queues.  A page full of text is not very compelling.

Enter Pulse.  Pulse has been on app markets for some time now, but if you haven’t had a chance to try it out, you really should.  Pulse is a fantastic way to get your news in a hurry, and it won’t bore you to death to look at.

Pulse allows you to organize your news sources alongside any other RSS feed you might be following.  You can create pages dedicated to different kinds of information, and all of your pages are organized like a grid.  This grid swipes horizontally to go back in time, and vertically to move between sources.

Pulse beautifully combines the interactive nature of a smart phone or tablet with the best way that the brain has to process information – visuals.  Each story focuses on a thumbnail with the title of the story below it.  When you click on the thumbnail, the story pops up, and when you're finished, it takes you back to the main grid.

If you're interested in following RSS feeds and you haven’t had a chance to check out Pulse, we highly recommend it.  Get into the news and back out to your day quickly.  As the title suggests, it helps you keep your finger on the pulse of all your interests.