Which Feed Reader is Best?

Google Reader. Was a bloglines fan for years but switched this year to GR because it’s hands down a better online reader. I too require access from multiple machines and don’t want to maintain an installed client app.

I recently blogged about switching here:

http://www.stevetrefethen.com/blog/GoogleReaderCurrentlyWinsOverBloglinesForOnlineAggregatorsInMyBook.aspx

I’m a Google Reader user too, although I did try just about every RSS reader I could get my hands on before deciding on it. It’s simple to use and I’ve got it setup on my iGoogle start page so I can have a quick browse throughout the day.

I also keep a backup of my feedlist and a copy of GreatNews on my usb key. I sync it to read offline when I’m travelling. It’s so handy, I can read at my leisure on my laptop or, if it’s not with me, on any available pc. If I’m away for more than a couple of days, it only takes a few minutes online to resync it and I’m ready to go again. Minimises potentially expensive internet or mobile phone data costs that way :-)

I started using the new rss Aggregator site that has a collection of really good rss feeds from all over the net in different niches -check it out – http://www.miniboxs.com

Google Reader, it’s light (the most important thing I care about in web applications is to be clean and light and that’s why I prefer Gmail to Yahoo). It’s feature rich, I can share feeds with friends, categorize them.

I use the Sage extension for Firefox and the built-in RSS reader for Flock. I use them coz most of the time I use the same computer. I plan to start using Google Reader too so I’d have an online copy of my daily reads/feeds that I can access in case I’m using somebody else’s computer.

I love feedreader.

It sometimes has a large memory footprint but the ability to add custom filters to the feeds I follow is priceless.

I can filter my feeds almost any way I like.

And if you follow a few hundred RSS subscriptions filtering immediately becomes your #1 priority.

Other web-based counterparts do have filtering feature to a certain extent.
But they are not close to feed reader.

Another advantage is I can read my feed after downloading them to the reader even if I am offline — for instance in the train, on the way to office.

Cheers

So far i have only used Google Reader, and i was satisfied until reading the comments posted here. I think i should try some of those products mentioned here!

I’m addicted to Google Reader.

I started subscribing to RSS feeds using Mozilla Thunderbird a year ago. I liked that old items were still available (=did not magically disappear just because they were read) and could be flagged. When switching to Gmail and not wanting another XUL-application besides Firefox running in the background all day made me search for an online feed reader.
I didn’t like Bloglines & Co. because the view didn’t comfort me. Reading the feeds wasn’t fun at all. Bloglines, IIRC, didn’t even use whitespace between feed items which made things just worse. Google Reader, which I discovered thanks to Gmail, did the job just fine. Lots of space, the content was readable easyly and the design as simple as possible. I like that the navigation/sidebar is in a big colorfulbox and not just seperated from the content using a thin line. The design wasn’t hip, but it made reading feeds fun. I could star items like in Thunderbird, I was even able to assign tags, discovered that tagging a feed results in assigning it to a folder and learnt the keyboard shotcuts. Feed-reading with any other application seems impossible to me now.

Thanks to
http://www.hicksdesign.co.uk/journal/google-reader-theme
my Google Reader looks really impressive now, too! This CSS file made my favorite feed reader look more like a real application than just yet another multi-colored google app.
Google Reader finally grew up.

That’s it.

I used Bloglines when I started blogging last year. But when I return to work, Bloglines is blocked in my company’s network. I’m done moving all feeds to Netvibes today.

I tried my yahoo for while, but found it very unsatisfying. The main issue was it took a long time for some new feeds to show up on my yahoo (based on my own own blog anyway). Sometimes it took days! A friend pointed me to netvibes, which is fantastic.It updates almost instantaneously.

Ive only been blogging for a few months, so my reason may not apply to everyone. Early on, I read somewhere that the easiest way to get your blog
listed by google’s search results was to start a google reader account and list your blog there. It worked for me, and I never had to go through their application process.
As an alternate, I tried my yahoo, but the feed updates very slowly and seems to go down for days at a time..

I use the Flock Browser

I use Flock to browse the web and it’s built in feed reader to catch up on the news and my favourite blogs.
It’s just very simple to use. Hit the “My News” button on the toolbar and you’re presented with all your feeds, organised the way you like. Unread articles are emphasized.

I’d say that it functions almost as same as akregator for KDE

Although I do have all my subscriptions on Google Reader as well, I haven’t yet developed the habit to visit it regularly.

After adding a new feed, I e-mail myself an OPML of all my feeds.

It saves the time if I move on to a new machine or just recently, installed linux on my computer or incase something goes bazooks !

I using NewsHutch to read problogger.

google reader for me, mainly because i can add it to my google homepage easily. As google own the internet, and google search is practically me ‘base’, it makes sense to use google reader, simply because it’s handiest.

Vienna for OS X. Works, solid, and free. I don’t subscribe to tons of feeds so maybe if I needed more I might change. Right now though, everytime I try the others I come back to Vienna.

Safari (the Mac browser) has a built-in RSS feeder that rocks. I love it. It is simple but gives me everything I need in a feed reader. I’ve tried Google Reader, but it doesn’t even come close to Safari.

I use Mozilla Thunderbird, so I have in one application mails, blogs and news.

Feedreader is my choice. Simple, clean and organized. I have used several readers including Google, Bloglines, Netvibes, Pageflakes etc…but I always come back to Feedreader.

Google reader here. I love that I can scroll past stories, THEN they get marked read. Not all at once.

I use Google Reader, its easy and I run a bunch of other Google programs so it is on my bookmarked page with the rest of my programs

iGoogle for on-line news and RSS Bandit off-line

I used to use Bloglines but recently, I have completely switched to Google Reader. I like it for the folder settings and the fact that you can assign a feed to more than one folder. Also, like the shared feature to easily have a link blog.

Bloglines! Fast and easy to organize. No ads so far.

Netvibes.

I rarely used RSS feeds prior to Netvibes. I didn’t care for the interfaces of newsreaders but Netvibes is slick and very user friendly. The modules are easy to use and fun to customize. The tab feature is nice for categorization and being able to open pages within modules and tabs is also handy. I can leave a Netvibes window open all day and rarely have to surf to regular sites.

I use Google Reader. It was recommended to me when I first started reading blogs, and I’ve stuck with it. It is very simple to use. I haven’t looked into any others, but have not felt the need to because Google Reader has worked so well for me.