Saturday, July 14, 2007

Feed Reader

I wasn't sure if this was already asked in the archives. I'd like to start using a feed reader to organize the blogs I read. There are so many different clients (Google reader, Bloglines, etc.) out there, I'm curious as to which ones everyone uses.

This Post was written by Amy from Nook & Pantry

12 comments:

Derrick said...

I use Bloglines. I'm fairly happy with it. The advantage is that it's on the Web, so it's available from any computer with a network connection, and it seems to be compatible with different browsers. I've had issues with Google Reader in the past. I think I mostly just don't like its interface, and it's overly slow.

The disadvantage to those, of course, is that they're not very useful if you'd like to catch up on blogs while taking the train into work (for instance). You need a network connection. If you use a laptop, you may also want to look at NetNewsWire, which runs on the machine itself. (There are others, but NNW users account for 3 times more RSS hits than the next most used reader in my statistics logs; it's pretty popular.)

Kalyn Denny said...

Hmm, didn't know that about NNW. I also use Bloglines and like it a lot. I have heard some people rave on about Google Reader though; my brother just loves it. I think Bloglines is incredibly simple to use, which was a plus for me.

Cybele said...

I've used bloglines for years (maybe four?) and love it. But maybe that's made me myopic about other good services out there. I just don't feel like porting over the 175 feeds that I read to somewhere else.

I like that I can access it from any computer just by logging in. It doesn't archive sites (like some feed aggregators do - Rojo) or have advertising on it (except what the author inserts). It remembers what I've read and let's me save posts for later reading or reference (which helps me when I want to link up to what other bloggers are talking about).

I figure the Google one has to be pretty good since I have more subscribers on that than Bloglines.

Whatever you do, it's definitely a time saver and has made me more aware of what's going on (I might only check some blogs once a week otherwise).

Anonymous said...

I use Bloglines, too, and it's made me wonder how I survived so long without RSS. I hear people rave about Google Reader, but I haven't tried it. I fear Google is getting a little Microsofty/Big Brotherish, so I like the idea of spreading around the potential net incursions into my privacy.

Andrew said...

I ahev two - my main daily reads are in Outlook via Newsgator (which is also synced online). Otherwise I use Blogbridge; which is great.

Joe said...

Another here who uses Bloglines!

Amy said...

Thanks for the speedy responses everyone! I'll investigate both Google reader and Bloglines, because I love and use many Google apps and features but I can't overlook Bloglines since that seems to be what everyone uses.

Barbara said...

I recently organised all the blogs I read into Google reader. I can't tell you how much it has changed my life and I can't believe I put it off for so long.

Anonymous said...

If you're on a Mac, NewsFire is great and the blends in with the OSX design and interface.

Andrea said...

I formerly used Blogbridge, but for some reason it became insanely slow and I finally gave up. Maybe I just had too many feeds.

Anyway, I switched to Sage, a Firefox extension that lets you browse your feeds inside of the Firefox window, and I've been pretty happy with it.

Anne said...

I'm a big fan of google reader - it's reliable and I can even access it from my Palmpilot. (Excellent for those long, boring meetings!) :)

Anonymous said...

I started with Sage for Firefox, then moved over to NetVibes.

I could not live without Netvibes now. It's very easy to setup and is easy to add modules for ToDo lists, Calendars, Notes etc. I even have a tab that gives me my blog admin page. So I don't have to leave Netvibes to post stuff.

It's also excellent for MP3 blogs if you read/use them. It has an inbuilt player.