The tech world has had months to prepare for the impending departure of the Google RSS Reader, and as it draws near, there are finally a few companies stepping up and putting out their own RSS readers as replacements. Facebook (News - Alert) is one of the biggest companies talking about rolling out a replacement, but it is far from the only one that wants to try to fill the void, and bring in the millions of people who were dependent on Google (News - Alert) for their RSS reader needs.

AOL has recently announced that it too will be rolling out a new reader. The company hasn’t allowed many to see just what the reader looks like yet, but it has given a few a sneak peek.

AOL (News - Alert) decided that the best way to try and fill the Google Reader shoes was to look as much like Google Reader as it possibly could. While some companies like Feedly have been trying to bring beautiful color pictures to the table, AOL is going very minimalistic with its first offering. The color scheme is a mix of blues and whites that forms a look that PC World reviewers are saying isn’t something you would want to stare at for long periods of time.

The adding of RSS feeds is fairly simple, you can use search terms, enter a direct and complete RSS feed URL or you can search for feeds using categories. PC World reports that the first build of the reader has some real issues in the search, pointing out that doing a search for “New York Yankees” didn’t return the MLB (News - Alert).com feed or the New York Daily News. Another drawback to the reader right now is that it cannot automatically import your Google Reader feeds. That could be because it isn’t expecting to launch officially until after Google Reader is dead and gone anyways. You can copy down your Google Reader XML file and import that way.

The AOL reader isn’t complete just yet and the company has said that more features will be getting rolled out over the next few months. One has to wonder why the reader isn’t a little farther along considering how much of a warning the company was given.