Yes, Google Reader Is *That* Good
2006 December 4
If you’re a blogger, or even someone who compulsively visit dozens of sites daily to check their updates, you have to check out Google Reader. It’s amazing, and it has totally redefined the beginning stages of my blogging workflow. If you’re not an RSS monkey now, you’re about to be. You’ve been warned.
No, seriously. It’s that good. Even Scoble goes on and on about it.
Have you tried it?
Mac users, do you find gReader to be better than Newsfire and NetNewsWire? I do, simply because it’s web-based, elegant, and accessible from any computer with a ‘net connection.
Dave Winer is spot-on with a comment he made in his recent email debate in the WSJ with Robert Scoble: Google is the dominant software vendor these days.
I like Netvibes myself…(Mac user)
http://www.netvibes.com
veltis — really? I’ve never tried that or, for that matter, heard of it. I’ll check it out.
Actually, Google reader looks pretty cool. It’s not going to replace NNW anytime soon for me though
I tried Google reader and didn’t like it. I use newsgator.com and NewsNetWire. Newsgator is web based and accessible from any computer with an internet connection. And NewsNetWire syncs with it.
Ill take you up on that…
I just don’t see a reason to use a client-side RSS aggregator when something like Google Reader exists and can be accessed from any computer, no matter where you are. I also like the river-style reading format.
Also, you can’t beat the price.
There was an early version of Google Reader that left a lot of people nonplussed. Have you tried it lately?
I’ve used NNW and NewsFire each at length, as well as less-known apps like Vienna, Bloglines, Newsgator, and Flock’s built-in reader. Google Reader, in my opinion, is the best of all of them for its ease of use and portability. (I blogged about some of the others here, but I’ve since changed my mind, obviously.)
A few things I don’t like: The scroll bar needs to be moved all the way to the right so that you can easily scroll without looking directly at it. I’ve also had some other scrolling issues recently that automatically send me to the top of the feed list whenever I click on a headline. Kind of weird. And really annoying.
ben f — have you found that you can sometimes scroll faster than Google Reader can mark the item as read? I have.
Actually, I prefer using a client-side RSS aggregator. It’s much easier to click on NewNetwire in the dock and read the feeds than to open Firefox, go to a webpage, log in and then read the feeds.
I don’t know what you mean by “river-style reading format”. It looks like the format in Google Reader is the same as in NewGator. NewsGator also has a river-style reading format?
I just tried Google Reader and it looks better than the last time I tried it. But I don’t see a reason to switch to it.
nicholi — I dig your avatar. Nice.
NewsGator is river-style too. gReader and NG are similar in many respects.
I don’t agree that client-side is easier. It’s no trouble at all for me to fire up FF2 on my Mac and click a bookmark. Login is handled via cookie. I’m up and ready in a second, and since I have my browser launched 100% of my computing time, it’s really one click away.
But different strokes and all that. As I said earlier, I like gReader so that when I stumble into my office every day, I can hit my bookmark and have all my feeds there in the exact state of coverage that I had at home on my Mac. Nice.
I used NewsGator for awhile and almost stopped reading feeds. Now with gReader, reading feeds is fresh and fun!
The AJAX makes the difference as NewsGator just feels clunky, where Google Reader is smooth like butter! Thank you Google, for making internet reading enjoyable!
Google Reader is the first RSS reader I’ve found useful and easy enough to use. It’s the first one I’ve used and I swear by it (though I prefer the old interface slightly for some reason).
@Jeff: What do you mean by “scroll faster than gReader can mark the item as read”? Are you using list or extended view?
I typically don’t read every item, so I’m usually scrolling toward the bottom at a reasonable speed. Once I’m at something I want, I open it up and the page moves all the way back up to the top. Once I’m through, then I mark everything as read.
I’m using OmniWeb, which I suspect is the problem since it sometimes has trouble with some other AJAX things. That said, this just started happening recently, and I haven’t tested FF or Safari yet to see if it’s happening there too.
ben — I use extended view, and sometimes when I scroll quickly through the feeds for a given site, it will freak a little and not decrement my unread feed count for the site. Then, eventually, it catches up.
@Jeff
It depends on how many feeds you read at a time–Netvibes gives you a kind of online desktop that you can fill with feeds and modules–I like to use it to keep track of multiple sites/projects at once, so I have my Backpackit changes feed, various post and comment feeds, news feeds, posting tools, google calendar, etc. If you’re specifically and only keeping track of hundreds of different blog feeds, Google reader is probably better.
For me the exciting thing about RSS is not “Hey I can collect read articles anywhere!” it’s using it to get a shorthand of certain functional (not news) content from various sites–feedback requests, status reports, etc.
Now if Netvibes would only get a GoogleAnalytics or Statcounter module, I would need nothing else.
Just getting involved with blogging. Would like to be a little creative in visuals (background, add pics, perhaps vid). Work with Mac (preferred) AND MS-XP if possible. Is there a site that compares all the various features (with pro’s/con’s) on blogware?
PS: Not computer literate – somewhere around junior-Hi – but want to learn more.
Thanx/dennis
I’m a total RSS junkie.
I’ve been using google reader for well over a year and in the past 30 days i’ve read 2926 item (oh yeah!).
the past two weeks i’ve been using NewsNetWire.
I think i’m gonna change back. Just because why have two apps running when i can have one. things get confusing if I read RSS somewhere but my own mac. And google trends are flippin’ ace.
google reader rules.
fact.