RSS readers (2)
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Oct 24, 2005
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I've tried a few RSS readers (also known as feed readers, aggregators, etc.) lately and I feel qualified to write a comparative review. Most of the services I tried are web-based instead of downloadable programs. This is because I want to be able to read feeds no matter where I am, without having to download any software.
My Yahoo is about as good as every other Yahoo creation. It has big banner ads at the top of the page, which is a big no-no. Its biggest downfall is only being able to see a summary of each article, and not full text. My rating: 1/5 stars
Google Reader is sadly very buggy and unimpressive. I expected much more from Google. Some good points are that it uses keyboard shortcuts much like Gmail, it can tag articles with labels, and it's Ajax-based so it's "cool". It's bad points are that it's given me several problems with adding new feeds and sometimes it just doesn't work at all. But I think it'll improve in the future. My rating: 3/5 stars
NewsGator has a nice user interface and is very customizable. But I can't help thinking that it feels like a Microsoft product. It's main downfall is that it doesn't show full-text articles. My rating: 2/5 stars
Bloglines is my favorite so far. It uses keyboard shortcuts and has many custom settings. It's not ad-supported, which is unusual but welcome. And it's owned by Ask Jeeves, my former homepage for many years. My rating: 5/5 stars
Mozilla Thunderbird is the only desktop reader I tried. It seems to work pretty well and is fairly customizable. But it defeats my purpose for a feed reader: to read things wherever I am, without installing any software. My rating: 4/5 stars #technology
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Comments:
2005-10-24 12:09:31
To further clarify, Google Reader seems to have a problem with updating. Bloglines shows articles very shortly after they're posted, and it does this reliably. Google Reader sometimes takes a while to show new posts and sometimes it takes a really long time to show new posts.
2005-10-25 09:59:31
I use SharpReader. It fails your criteria though as it is downloadable.
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