The revamped Google Reader is really nice. The big name in Mac RSS readers is NetNewsWire (I believe NNW is far and away the most popular RSS reader out there, PC or Mac), and there's a decent free (and open source) one called Vienna.
Weird -- can other readers see a new post titled "RSS Readers, 2006"? I can't.
Speaking of RSS, what's up with a bunch of my Blogger feeds switching to just provide a link to the article instead of the full text? Is that from people upgrading to that new Beta thing? Is there a full-text feed coming for those folks?
NetNewsWire
This isn't free anymore though, is it?
Geez, Google Reader looks really good. Stay tuned....
This isn't free anymore though, is it?
They got bought out by the FeedDemon people; there used to be a free version available (NNW Lite) that stripped out syncing and some other useful features but still worked pretty well as a reader, but I don't know if FeedDemon/Newsgator has discontinued it.
NewsFire is a free Mac reader that a lot of folks I know swear by. It didn't feel quite right to me, though, and I ended up shelling out for NetNewsWire, which is excellent.
Ogged, do you have a particular recommendation for a web-based reader with really good search? I've got a project I'm working on where I need to share a large pool of feeds with people so that their entries can be searched. I gave Bloglines a shot, but their "search only my feeds" option is completely broken (I emailed them but haven't gotten any particularly encouraging replies).
Got any recommendations? I'll give NewsAlloy and Google Reader a try, but let me know if something else occurs to you. I suppose that frequent updating, fine-grained search and the ability to import OPML files would be my priorities in this case.
Tom, I haven't seen a search feature, let alone a decent search feature, in Google Reader, FeedLounge or NewsAlloy.
I love Google, but the aesthetics of the reader suck. And I'm coming around to the view that it would be nice if Google forced their geniuses to bear down for a month and add some fit'n'finish to their various projects.
the aesthetics of the reader suck
You wouldn't say that if you'd just spent a few days looking at the 50 other online readers.
I'm unclear about why you can't use a synching program to synch GreatNews across computers. I've really come to like GreatNews, and if it allowed you to export marked items to a text file, it would be just about perfect.
use a synching program to synch GreatNews across computers
How do you mean?
One of the advantages to an online reader, which is in the back of my mind, pushing me away from a desktop reader, is that you can get your feed on your phone. I've tried that a bit in the past, and I know Google offers it for their reader.
Does there appear to be a way to have the Google Reader display new posts in ascending, rather than descending chronological order? That's the feature that has me sticking with Bloglines.
the aesthetics of the reader suck
Well pardon us, Harold Bloom.
Is there any way to get GreatNews to order posts in descending chron order? It sorts them now by order received, meaning you'll get blocks sorted in ascending chron order with the newest block on top, so no way to read the posts in order.
In Great News, you can go to View, click on News List, the sort the items by date. If I understand what you want...
Eh, ideally I would like to have the posts sorted by date in the detail window. I don't usually look at the list view at all.
15 - I don't think so.
That said, I still like Google Reader best, if only because it's the only one that worked intuitively for me.*
*Translate: I'm lazy.
And, given the general complexity of these things, quite stupid too.
Hm -- Now that I did what -gg-d advised in 19, GreatNews seems to be doing what I want it to. Kind of a wonky interface. But thanks!
I use Bloglines, and love it. Have varying feeds for each blog, Unfogged shows Post+Comments. Most of the my feeds show complete posts without comments.
Bloglines recently really sped up its updates. Which I suppose is great for many people, but I have 150+ very active blogs, and even with broadband, my browser slows down for a minute every ten minutes. I can't find an option to update less often.
you can get your feed on your phone.
Ogged, we really love having you back, but maybe you need to spend just a leetle less time online.
14: have you really had luck with mobile RSS? I always found bloglines' mobile reader to be unreliable on my pocket PC (this was before their upgrade a few months ago, though). And, nerdy though my phone may be, it's never had much luck, either.
It always seemed to me that the next step up phone-wise (e.g. Treo, MDA, Blackberry) would probably bring native RSS reader apps with it. I know that there are windows mobile readers, for example -- even some open source ones (link goes to a longish list of WM software assembled by Phil Torrone from MAKE magazine).
have you really had luck with mobile RSS?
Not at all, but check out http://www.google.com/reader/m It's really not bad. I did put an app on my Nokia phone that worked pretty well, actually, but I didn't use it enough to shell out for it. Using the phone's built in browser to keep track of my feeds would be pretty sweet.
Bloglines seems to work fine on my Blackberry.
whats the advantage of using a newreader instead of just bookmarking the feeds in firefox? it seems like still have to click to load everything up to show the full post & comments either way.
whats the advantage of using a newreader instead of just bookmarking the feeds in firefox?
The newsreader checks the site and lets you know if it has new content, so you don't have to check, or hit refresh. And many sites include the full post in their feed, and some, including us, have a feed for comments as well.
31: newsreaders are apparently much better than i was previously led to believe.
NetNewsWire
This isn't free anymore though, is it?
The last version of NetNewsWire Lite is still available as a free download, and I for one prefer it to the full version. Plus, you can set up an account with NewsGator (another Ranchero offering) and sync your subscriptions and read/unread tally among multiple computers. Which is sweet.
31, some, including us, have a feed for comments as well.
Where is this purported comments feed, ogged?