I beg to differ. Google reader is slow for going through blog posts and feeds are updated less than on Bloglines in my view. I use Bloglines the whole time and left Google Reader to gather dust.
How is GReader slower for going through feeds? The keyboard shortcuts make it very easy to breeze through them, marking the ones you want to share or flag for later easy as well.
@DamienMulley: How profound. rolling eyes Perhaps you could expound on why you think Bloglines is much faster than Google Reader for going through feeds instead of trying to be clever. I explained why I thought it's very quick to get through feeds in GReader.
Netvibes looks nice, but I don't like how each feed is its own "widget". Its interface wouldn't lend itself to efficiency, IMO. But a lot of people seem to like Netvibes...
Ah right, I have to prove why I find it faster. Didn't realise this was some fucking empirical test. You're right. You win. I'm a big fucking liar. Move on.
GReader can be slow or fast, depending on how your read your feeds. If you read them in list view (ie a long list of titles that you have to manually open to read the contents), you can quickly scan through the contents with keyboard shortcuts and clear a large number of things you don't particularly have to read right now (useful for reading feeds like Boing Boing). "n" for next feed item, "m" to toggle read status and "o" to open the item. Dead quick really.
On the other hand, I use the Scoble method where I read all items in expanded view, using "j" to skip to the next feed. This can be slower as it can take a little bit of time to open image heavy feeds.
In IE6 I often suffer a terminal slowdown in expanded view that can only be fixed by logging out and logging in again. I don't have this problem in FF or IE7 when at home (IE6 is the mandatory install at work {sigh} ).
I haven't used Bloglines in a long time but it was the GReader keyboard shortcuts that got me hooked. Apparently the new beta is quite good and gives GReader a run for its money.
@DamienMulley: relax. I think @jezlyn was just looking for reasons why you thought it was slow eg does it take a long time to skip to the next feed, or loading images something like that. I'm fairly sure she's not looking for stopwatch results.
@jezlyn That is the strength of netvibes; The instant overview you get by having each and every feed in one category displayed at once. This makes it very quick to get an overview of, for example, the news in the morning.
I use the expanded view and use "j" and "k" to move between posts as well. However, I find this to be pretty fast. Perhaps it's because I'm usually using GReader on a computer with broadband. When I use GReader on a mobile device (phone or iPod touch), I just use the mobile version, which is more like the list view.
I have run Bloglines in the past, but I got tired of their not working list-options etc. Perhaps the new version is better, I don't know. I'm happy with Netvibes - though the only thing I miss is https-access, this is why I always use Google Reader when on moving foot.
Netvibes is great as a home page. Puts everything together nicely. I never thought of it as a "feed reader" as such... it certainly isn't well suited to skimming through a hundred feeds. I used Bloglines for awhile because it had a nicely formatted interface for the Blackberry, but I don't read feeds with the Blackberry anymore because it is too slow. On my laptop I use Vienna - could never get used to a web based feed reader, not even Google Reader (depsite my best efforts).
I've used bloglines since early 2004. I tried GReader when there was a lot of hoopla about it and I didn't like it so I switched back to bloglines. The 'j' and 'k' keys work in bloglines too. Before bloglines I used desktop-based AmphetaDesk - anyone remember that ?
Haven't used bloglines in a while as I switched to google reader as I used to find bloglines a little clunky. Just went back to try the new 'beta' - 200,037 new stories in my feeds. Looks nicer that it did anyway.
Another bloglines user here. One thing particularly I like is the disposable email addresses for the few newsletter-only puyblishers out there. I tried the early versions of Google Reader and didn't get on with it, must give it another try tho.
I agree it's not the prettiest reader around though if that all that really bothers you, you can change the appearance with a custom CSS file easily enough e.g. there's an OSX-themed skin for macheads.
@sxoop: Good to know that Bloglines also has the keyboard shortcuts to navigate the feeds. I was looking for this type of information before, but apparently it was too much trouble for some people to provide. :P
Must admit I haven't used Bloglines in a long time, didn't know it had keyboard shortcuts too. Think I'll give it another go, thanks for the info everyone. :)
@jezlyn I agree. I used to have Bloglines over Google Reader, just because Google Reader wasn't an option back then due to it's severe lack in usability/functionality.
Just tried the Bloglines beta...after 10 mins I still don't like it. There are some killer features in GReader for me (share this for one) and I do actually like the design (whereas I find Bloglines too clunky). It's uncluttered and focuses on the actual news items.
But hey, horses for courses, it's all down to personal preference in the end. :)
If you maintain more than 200 subscriptions and want a touchpoint on your mobile phone, I think you need to expand the list of newsreaders to include FreeNews. It will not scrape more than once an hour and it allows cool email and auto-tagging features inside its interface. But it's a phone-only interface that can cache content. FreeNews assumes you touch your feeds while on the go and don't want to pop open a laptop when doing that.
@lexia: Totally forgot to mention that if you use Firefox, you can get a Greasemonkey script to run Stylish, a script that can skin Google Reader and other sites. Granted it's not going to totally turn the GReader UI upside down, but it'll make it look a little nicer.
Did you try Bloglines? I also forgot to mention NewsGator, but I don't remember if it's still free. It has some nice touches to sync up with certain desktop RSS aggregators, and can sync your read counts among all the versions of NewsGator that you use, which is nice. Early on I used it and Bloglines, switching from one to the other when one was acting up, but now I just use GReader.
@jezlyn: newsgator is still free. Always will be (as far as I know).
I use Newsgator, as well they bought NetNewsWire (mac RSS reader). SInce then I can synch my NNW feeds with NewsGator and read them from both positions (they are always synch'ed).
There is also a mobile version for when you're shopping and you get bored. http://m.newsgator.com/
Built for the iphone (whatever that means) it (surprise surprise!) works with all other mobile devices..
If you're using Firefox, I've heard a number of good things about the extension Sage. I've never used it myself but I know a handful of people who swear by it. Apparently the RSS reader in Safari is similar but I can't say from personal experience.
Doh, yes, Stylish is just a Firefox extension. I think there is also a Greasemonkey script to skin different sites in FF, but IIRC, I opted for the Stylish extension since I didn't have Greasemonkey installed, and it seemed the easier option.
Re: Netvibes, it sounds good as a kind of dashboard to quickly look over a few feeds. That's cool. It doesn't really work for my style of consuming RSS feeds, but it sounds like a handy site to use if you want more of a visual dashboard interface.
45 comments so far
Google Reader is so much better than Bloglines.
2 years, 1 month ago by jezlyn
I'm not being silo-istic (new dumb word) - but GReader makes my eyeballs bleed. I don't like the UI one bit
2 years, 1 month ago by lexia
I beg to differ. Google reader is slow for going through blog posts and feeds are updated less than on Bloglines in my view. I use Bloglines the whole time and left Google Reader to gather dust.
2 years, 1 month ago by DamienMulley
Hmmm. To me, Bloglines looks like crap. :)
2 years, 1 month ago by jezlyn
How is GReader slower for going through feeds? The keyboard shortcuts make it very easy to breeze through them, marking the ones you want to share or flag for later easy as well.
2 years, 1 month ago by jezlyn
I'll admit that sometimes GReader seems to get stuck in updating certain feeds, though.
2 years, 1 month ago by jezlyn
I love GReader, haven't used anything else for a loooong time. I love the 'j' key too much, you can whizz through your feeds with that. :)
2 years, 1 month ago by zenith
Slow = not fast.
2 years, 1 month ago by DamienMulley
@DamienMulley: How profound. rolling eyes Perhaps you could expound on why you think Bloglines is much faster than Google Reader for going through feeds instead of trying to be clever. I explained why I thought it's very quick to get through feeds in GReader.
2 years, 1 month ago by jezlyn
{sits back and crosses arms}
Loving the geeky passion here
2 years, 1 month ago by lexia
I like Netvibes the most, second place for Google Reader.
2 years, 1 month ago by hypocrisy
Netvibes looks nice, but I don't like how each feed is its own "widget". Its interface wouldn't lend itself to efficiency, IMO. But a lot of people seem to like Netvibes...
2 years, 1 month ago by jezlyn
Ah right, I have to prove why I find it faster. Didn't realise this was some fucking empirical test. You're right. You win. I'm a big fucking liar. Move on.
2 years, 1 month ago by DamienMulley
GReader can be slow or fast, depending on how your read your feeds. If you read them in list view (ie a long list of titles that you have to manually open to read the contents), you can quickly scan through the contents with keyboard shortcuts and clear a large number of things you don't particularly have to read right now (useful for reading feeds like Boing Boing). "n" for next feed item, "m" to toggle read status and "o" to open the item. Dead quick really.
On the other hand, I use the Scoble method where I read all items in expanded view, using "j" to skip to the next feed. This can be slower as it can take a little bit of time to open image heavy feeds.
In IE6 I often suffer a terminal slowdown in expanded view that can only be fixed by logging out and logging in again. I don't have this problem in FF or IE7 when at home (IE6 is the mandatory install at work {sigh} ).
I haven't used Bloglines in a long time but it was the GReader keyboard shortcuts that got me hooked. Apparently the new beta is quite good and gives GReader a run for its money.
2 years, 1 month ago by smperris
@DamienMulley: relax. I think @jezlyn was just looking for reasons why you thought it was slow eg does it take a long time to skip to the next feed, or loading images something like that. I'm fairly sure she's not looking for stopwatch results.
What view were you using in GReader?
2 years, 1 month ago by smperris
Relax? You can go fuck yourself mate.
2 years, 1 month ago by DamienMulley
@jezlyn That is the strength of netvibes; The instant overview you get by having each and every feed in one category displayed at once. This makes it very quick to get an overview of, for example, the news in the morning.
2 years, 1 month ago by hypocrisy
Another charm school graduate in our midsts I see. :D
2 years, 1 month ago by zenith
I use the expanded view and use "j" and "k" to move between posts as well. However, I find this to be pretty fast. Perhaps it's because I'm usually using GReader on a computer with broadband. When I use GReader on a mobile device (phone or iPod touch), I just use the mobile version, which is more like the list view.
2 years, 1 month ago by jezlyn
Okay - I think I ought to test-drive Bloglines and Netvibes and see what I make of them.
2 years, 1 month ago by lexia
I have run Bloglines in the past, but I got tired of their not working list-options etc. Perhaps the new version is better, I don't know. I'm happy with Netvibes - though the only thing I miss is https-access, this is why I always use Google Reader when on moving foot.
2 years, 1 month ago by hypocrisy
Yeah, I didn't know about the Bloglines beta. If it's more similar to GReader, it'd be interesting.
2 years, 1 month ago by jezlyn
Netvibes is great as a home page. Puts everything together nicely. I never thought of it as a "feed reader" as such... it certainly isn't well suited to skimming through a hundred feeds. I used Bloglines for awhile because it had a nicely formatted interface for the Blackberry, but I don't read feeds with the Blackberry anymore because it is too slow. On my laptop I use Vienna - could never get used to a web based feed reader, not even Google Reader (depsite my best efforts).
2 years, 1 month ago by jgalvin
Bloglines is damned ugly.
Google Reader gets my vote. Aside from occasionally sluggish fetching times it's never left me wanting.
2 years, 1 month ago by micflan
I've used bloglines since early 2004. I tried GReader when there was a lot of hoopla about it and I didn't like it so I switched back to bloglines. The 'j' and 'k' keys work in bloglines too. Before bloglines I used desktop-based AmphetaDesk - anyone remember that ?
2 years, 1 month ago by sxoop
@lexia The 'word' silo-istic needs to die. Now.
2 years, 1 month ago by Festoon
@festoon I like it too much. Siloistic. Siloistic. Siloistic.
2 years, 1 month ago by lexia
Haven't used bloglines in a while as I switched to google reader as I used to find bloglines a little clunky. Just went back to try the new 'beta' - 200,037 new stories in my feeds. Looks nicer that it did anyway.
2 years, 1 month ago by dbannon
Another bloglines user here. One thing particularly I like is the disposable email addresses for the few newsletter-only puyblishers out there. I tried the early versions of Google Reader and didn't get on with it, must give it another try tho.
I agree it's not the prettiest reader around though if that all that really bothers you, you can change the appearance with a custom CSS file easily enough e.g. there's an OSX-themed skin for macheads.
2 years, 1 month ago by Yarrg
I like gReader tho I've never used bloglines. tried many readers and nothing came close.
2 years, 1 month ago by glas
@Yarrg: Yeah, the initial version of Google Reader was pretty crappy. I didn't start using it until they updated it to the current version.
2 years, 1 month ago by jezlyn
@sxoop: Good to know that Bloglines also has the keyboard shortcuts to navigate the feeds. I was looking for this type of information before, but apparently it was too much trouble for some people to provide. :P
2 years, 1 month ago by jezlyn
Must admit I haven't used Bloglines in a long time, didn't know it had keyboard shortcuts too. Think I'll give it another go, thanks for the info everyone. :)
2 years, 1 month ago by zenith
@jezlyn I agree. I used to have Bloglines over Google Reader, just because Google Reader wasn't an option back then due to it's severe lack in usability/functionality.
2 years, 1 month ago by hypocrisy
Just tried the Bloglines beta...after 10 mins I still don't like it. There are some killer features in GReader for me (share this for one) and I do actually like the design (whereas I find Bloglines too clunky). It's uncluttered and focuses on the actual news items.
But hey, horses for courses, it's all down to personal preference in the end. :)
2 years, 1 month ago by zenith
Ooh, a belligerent Irishman. Cute.
2 years, 1 month ago by smperris
If you maintain more than 200 subscriptions and want a touchpoint on your mobile phone, I think you need to expand the list of newsreaders to include FreeNews. It will not scrape more than once an hour and it allows cool email and auto-tagging features inside its interface. But it's a phone-only interface that can cache content. FreeNews assumes you touch your feeds while on the go and don't want to pop open a laptop when doing that.
2 years, 1 month ago by topgold
@lexia: Totally forgot to mention that if you use Firefox, you can get a Greasemonkey script to run Stylish, a script that can skin Google Reader and other sites. Granted it's not going to totally turn the GReader UI upside down, but it'll make it look a little nicer.
Did you try Bloglines? I also forgot to mention NewsGator, but I don't remember if it's still free. It has some nice touches to sync up with certain desktop RSS aggregators, and can sync your read counts among all the versions of NewsGator that you use, which is nice. Early on I used it and Bloglines, switching from one to the other when one was acting up, but now I just use GReader.
2 years, 1 month ago by jezlyn
Isn't Stylish an entirely different extension to Greasemonkey?
2 years, 1 month ago by edythemighty
@jezlyn Thanks for the tips, Cheryl :)
2 years, 1 month ago by lexia
@jezlyn: newsgator is still free. Always will be (as far as I know).
I use Newsgator, as well they bought NetNewsWire (mac RSS reader). SInce then I can synch my NNW feeds with NewsGator and read them from both positions (they are always synch'ed).
There is also a mobile version for when you're shopping and you get bored. http://m.newsgator.com/
Built for the iphone (whatever that means) it (surprise surprise!) works with all other mobile devices..
thats my choice..
2 years, 1 month ago by runningwithbulls
Ive tried to like google reader but netvibes is top for me
2 years, 1 month ago by eam0
Being able to view the website and separate it by tabs is pretty awesome in Netvibes. It is incredibly addicting =P
2 years, 1 month ago by edythemighty
If you're using Firefox, I've heard a number of good things about the extension Sage. I've never used it myself but I know a handful of people who swear by it. Apparently the RSS reader in Safari is similar but I can't say from personal experience.
2 years, 1 month ago by smperris
Doh, yes, Stylish is just a Firefox extension. I think there is also a Greasemonkey script to skin different sites in FF, but IIRC, I opted for the Stylish extension since I didn't have Greasemonkey installed, and it seemed the easier option.
Re: Netvibes, it sounds good as a kind of dashboard to quickly look over a few feeds. That's cool. It doesn't really work for my style of consuming RSS feeds, but it sounds like a handy site to use if you want more of a visual dashboard interface.
2 years, 1 month ago by jezlyn