Request for Comments: Which RSS Reader and Why?

Posted in Request for Comments, Technology by engtech on March 15, 2007

loving the readers

I have a post later today about different RSS readers, but before I get to it I want to find out what my readers are using. If you’re particularly passionate about your RSS reader software I’d love to hear why you feel that way. If you’re particularly passionate against RSS I’d love to hear that also.

Please leave a comment or a trackback.

Feed Reader Stats According to WordPress.com

Google Feedfetcher: 47.5%
Bloglines: 13.7%
NewsGatorOnline: 5.5%
Netvibes: 4.4%
FeedDemon: 0.8%
NetNewsWire: 0.8%

Feed Reader Stats According to FeedBurner

Google Feedfetcher: 39%
Bloglines: 9%
Firefox Live Bookmarks: 8%
Netvibes: 6%
NewsGatorOnline: 4%

30 comments

30 Responses

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MohamedBishr said, on March 15, 2007 at 7:35 pm

I pretty much like GoogleReader. It has everything I need but the most important part is how its tagging function works. When you tag posts from feeds the google suggest style tagging field gives you choices of how others spelled the tag you r trying to write. Over time you notice that you are using more of the tags used by the community! it will be exceptionally efficient to locate similar posts to yours in the future! Though such searches across other user tagged posts are not yet available :(
Christopher Finke said, on March 15, 2007 at 7:54 pm

I use RSS Ticker with my Firefox Live Bookmarks. Of course, I’m kind of biased towards it, having written it.
Ralph said, on March 15, 2007 at 8:50 pm

I use NetNewsWire. I tried Google Reader, but non-existant search or smart folders suck.
Random Good Stuff said, on March 15, 2007 at 8:59 pm

I use News Crawler because it is very stabil and it andles my over 300 News Feeds without any problems :)

It’s not free .. can’t remember how much it was but it was worth it ;)
Cory OBrien said, on March 15, 2007 at 9:17 pm

I use NetNewsWire because I like the way it organizes my feeds and it’s quick. Google’s feedreader is good, but I like the ability to read my feeds when I’m offline as well.
David Airey said, on March 15, 2007 at 11:51 pm

I’m using Google’s reader.

It’s the first feed reader I’ve used and I don’t see the need to have any more features than the ones it offers.
Chris Rohde said, on March 15, 2007 at 11:52 pm

I think one thing summarizes why google reader is the new hotness:

J,J,K,S,SHIFT-S, J, J, J, J, R, J, J, J.

You know what I am talking about.
Sterling Camden said, on March 16, 2007 at 12:08 am

I’m your 0.8% FeedDemon. I really like the way it organizes feeds. But if I can ever get myself off Windows as my primary workstation, I’ll have to say goodbye to it.
Webomatica said, on March 16, 2007 at 12:09 am

I’m using Google Reader. I was using NetNewsWire. Due to a hard drive crash, I’m starting to use online apps whenever possible. Plus I can access from wherever.
Trent said, on March 16, 2007 at 12:40 am

I posted something about this in the forums as well. Decided to stay with Google Reader. It just seems to be ‘familiar’ if nothing more….

Trent
Tony said, on March 16, 2007 at 12:46 am

I use NetNewsWire. It’s rather awesome having it sit in my dock and let me know whenever it finds any new posts (and how many).

I feel out of the loop when I leave my desktop, but so far I still prefer NetNewsWire over web based alternatives.
profkienstra said, on March 16, 2007 at 12:48 am

I use Thunderbird’s rss option.. simple to keep track of interesting posts,
mpb said, on March 16, 2007 at 1:30 am

I can only afford the free stuff.

Great News– so I can skim headlines, label stuff to save, have it mark what I’m particularly watching for, quickly search for items I’ve seen, email the url of the entry to others, notify me of new posts on sites I’m supporting, provide an archive of my blogs, monitor the feed status of my blogs, plays well with others (still has multi-task problems with Eudora+FireFox+dial-up but best tool I’ve found), easy to add new feeds, easy to find feed properties

SharpReader — I use only as an alternative archive of my own blogs, then use the mini-pictures etc from one blog (e.g., Flickr) into another posting. Easier to find and back-up the feed content on my local machine than Great News.

I use the browser for other things than reading headlines or tracking the world.
Rory said, on March 16, 2007 at 1:58 am

I am a Google Reader user. These are some of the reasons why I like it:

1. It has unlimited feeds. Many readers top out at 200 for an individual feed, some even less. You won’t get that hassle with this one.

2. I like the Star feature – if I’m in a hurry I can just glance down the collapsed list and star every item I want to read later.

3. I like the “share this” feature which puts all your shared items on to a separate page. You can then give the address to friends and acquaintances, and they can see what you are reading. Or, what about putting the link on your blog, and then all your visitors can have a look at what you have enjoyed. The shared page also has it’s own RSS feed.

4. If you hit the “Mark all as read” button and then wish you hadn’t, all is not lost. You can click on the link again and “View all items”. It goes back to, like, infinity…or something.
engtech said, on March 16, 2007 at 2:03 am

Man, I’m learning about a lot of new features I’d never considered before. Thanks guys. :)

*goes and re-writes entire article*
jhay said, on March 16, 2007 at 2:37 am

Google Reader for me. Before I used bloglines but had troubles with it so I switched back to Google Reader and I’m sticking with it. Still using Bloglines though, just to manage my blogroll.
The Secret Behind Why Blog Readers Unsubscribe « //engtech said, on March 16, 2007 at 3:43 am

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sulz said, on March 16, 2007 at 4:20 am

i use bloglines because it was mentioned in the forums by someone. i like how easy it is to be used. i never tested any other rss feed reader except feedburner, and i didn’t know the hell what i was supposed to do there, so i dropped it. the google feedfetcher sounds nice, though.
Kyle Hansen said, on March 16, 2007 at 7:49 am

It is Google Reader for me. I have tried others, but I love that I can share my favorite items. They keyboard shortcuts are also great. I also use stars to mark the articles I do not have time to read at the moment but want to go back to.
bachodi said, on March 16, 2007 at 8:12 am

I read feed in Google reader. Its coool.
mpb said, on March 16, 2007 at 8:34 am

PS– with Desktop readers (no log-in required) no one knows you are a cat on the Internet
Daniel said, on March 16, 2007 at 2:25 pm

Bloglines here
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TheShortFatKid said, on March 16, 2007 at 7:00 pm

I like Google reader, but someties it’s very slow to load and slow to go get feed items. Bloglines doen’t have as many nifty features as GR but it gets the job done.
Zigire said, on March 31, 2007 at 2:03 am

Must I be your only IE7 subscriber?

When IE7 was released in beta format I finally had a use for RSS, I dislike Firefox and the RSS subscription system is so easy to access in IE7 it’s made me slightly addicted to reading blogs whereas prior to installing it, I wasn’t at all.

To be honest, if it wasn’t for IE7, I don’t think I’d currently be blogging.
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Redneck Techy said, on April 07, 2007 at 11:45 am

I had been using Google Reader as it was easy to use and centralized. Which can come in handy if you are using several computers spread out all over the place. And I liked the fact that I could group feeds into multiple choices and have the feed show up on more than one.

However since I have tried the feed reader built into IE7 I am whistling a different tune. It seems almost crisp and refreshing compared to the cramped Google Reader. I like the fact that it has categories on the side so that you can do a quick scan of keywords and see if there is something that grabs your attention right away. I also like how fast it loads and the fact that it tells you how recently a particular post was added.

My only hurdle had been how to keep my various computers synced up with the same read feeds in IE7 on each computer. That is until I started using Allsync. I am able to carry a copy of my feeds with my on my USB drive and I can with a click of a button be current at any computer I sit at in less than a minute.
engtech said, on April 15, 2007 at 8:59 pm

I’m thinking of getting into the USB flashdrive for web browsing as well.

It seems like a great way of keeping everything together.
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